From Newsweek
By Abbey Interrante, June 2018
Canadian scientists discovered olive oil helps protect against the platelet aggregation that leads to heart attacks and strokes.
The Mediterranean diet staple olive oil could help you avoid heart attacks and stroke when combined with sleep.
New research has revealed why foods rich in unsaturated fats like olive oil help protect from cardiovascular disease. It found they promote higher levels of a protein that prevents the formation of blood clots.
Researchers from the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto found that levels of an important protein increase after eating foods high in unsaturated fats, like olive oil. Published in Nature Communications on Thursday, the study revealed that that protein can inhibit a key cause of bleeding and cardiovascular diseases.
The plasma protein that foods high in unsaturated fats can increase is called Apolipoprotein A-IV, or ApoA-IV. The higher the rates of ApoA-IV, the lower the rates of cardiovascular disease. ApoA-IV can block the platelet surface glycoproteins GPIIbIIIa, or integrin αIIβ3. This platelet receptor helps platelets in the blood clump together, called platelet aggregation. This can block blood flow, which causes thrombosis.
"Platelet aggregation can save lives because it can stop bleeding in damaged vessels," said Dr. Heyu Ni, Platform Director for Hematology, Cancer and Immunological Diseases at Keenan Research Centre and principal investigator of the study, said in a statement. "But we usually don't want platelets to block blood flow in the vessels. This is thrombosis, and if vessel occlusion occurs in the heart or brain, it can cause heart attack, stroke or death." According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year 790,000 Americans have a heart attack and around 795,000 Americans have a stroke.
After each meal, platelets are stimulated, which means they can bond together easier. When ApoA-IV increases in circulating blood after eating unsaturated fat, it can change its shape to support increased blood flow, so the risk of heart attack and stroke also decreases.
"This is the first study to link ApoA-IV with platelets and thrombosis," Dr. Ni said. "With this work, we have also explained why higher levels of ApoA-IV can slow down plaque buildup in blood vessels, known as atherosclerosis, because this process is also related to platelet function." The researchers also found that ApoA-IV has a circadian rhythm that causes it to be most active overnight and least active in the morning.
