Mediterrean diet is the key to get out of this mess

"Every aspect of human life including the risk factors for heart attack has a genetic component" tell Jeremiah Stamler, guest of the fourth “John Paul II” conference

by Marialaura Bonaccio

Jeremiah Stamler is one of those who never give up. Despite having spent his whole life in studying the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease publishing more than one thousands scientific papers in the most important journals in the world, he has still something to say at 91. Listening to him is even more necessary now than before, since our youngest generation is dramatically at risk. Junk food, lack of exercise and bad lifestyles in general are seriously threatening the lives of millions people all over the world. The epidemic must be immediately reversed to avoid that young people become too much confident with hospitals at just 40. Stamler, professor emeritus at the Northwestern University of Chicago, USA,was the guest of the fourth “John Paul II” Conference organized by the Research Laboratories of the Catholic University of Campobasso where he made the point on this crucial issue. Considered one of the “discoverer” of the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet, having worked for a long time with Ancel Keys and his American team, Stamler is absolutely convinced that reversal is possible. “Everyone cares about his health, especially young people” he says.

We are observing that the Mediterranean Diet is rapidly fading away from the countries where it was born, drifting toward western diet, while typically western countries are slowly adopting more Mediterranean lifestyles. Is there any hope to reverse this trend especially among young people?
Yes, in simple English, of course. Young people everywhere are interested in their health and in a healthy long term future. What we have to do is bring them the message about the benefits and the pleasure of the Mediterranean way of eating just to say read the message and listen to the messages about not smoking.

Did the Mediterranean diet health benefits come out of the blue when you were studying it or did you have some hinds from previous research?
No, I myself have researched for many decades on the multiple factors that influence the risks of coronary heart disease, atherosclerotic diseases. I myself did not research the Mediterranean diet as such but the Mediterranean diet value appeared to me related to the fundamental causes of the epidemic of heart attack, the epidemic of high blood cholesterol, dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes. So when we tackle the questions of encouraging people to eat a Mediterranean way and to have a Mediterranean lifestyle, exercise, eat well, enjoy the pleasure of eating in a healthy way and not smoke, I repeat, not smoke, we are talking about matters that have a very broad application.

In Italy we use to say “do what the priest says not what he does”. So, how much do you put in practice the Mediet rules at home?
That’s a very good question. Some years ago JAMA, the journal of the American medical association, which is the most important journal in the world for physicians, wrote an editorial about improving lifestyles to prevent heart attack and the title of the article was “do you preach what you do”? Because already the physicians in America stopped smoking, exercise, were not obese and were eating very carefully but the question was “are you telling to your patients the same things?”. Don’t do what I do but do what I say. Now we say do what I do not just what I say.

Genetics and lifestyle are both involved in cardiovascular disease onset. Do you think actual scientific research is suggesting than one of them is more responsible than the other?
Every aspect of human life including the risk factors for heart attack has a genetic component. For most people the genetic component creates a possibility of a bad situation. A possibility, not a certainty. That possibility is either expressed or suppressed by lifestyle. If you eat a healthy way , Mediterranean style, the tendency the most of us have to higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure with age, can be kept at bay.

Here in Campobasso, with the “Moli-sani” epidemiological project, we are trying to establish the real situation of the diet and lifestyles in a typical Mediterranean region in the south of Italy. Do you think studies like this one could help advancing our knowledge in the field of prevention?
No question. Of course this kind of studies is very very useful. We need in every place pooled studies and collection of data to disseminate to the people to help them become determined to improve their lifestyles for a better health.

We’ve learnt about your experience with the “un-American activity” committee. The question is: how much scientists have the moral duty to get involved in social and political issues too?
First of all health issues are political issues. It is impossible for responsible scientists to collect data that has great meaning for health and to say someone else must give this information to the public. Medicine is an applied science, public health is an applied science. We are not pure scientists living on mount Olympus. We have the responsibility to transmit information we collect.