A low-carbohydrate diet based on animal food sources increases mortality risk, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study included 85,168 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 44,548 men from the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study with an average of 23 years of follow-up. Researchers found that a high-animal-food, low-carbohydrate diet was linked with higher all-cause mortality, including a higher rate of cancer deaths. A high-vegetable-food, low-carbohydrate diet was associated with lower mortality, especially reducing the risk of death from cardiovascular events.

Fung TT, van Dam RM, Hankinson SE, Stampfer M, Willett WC, Hu FB. Low-carbohydrate diets and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: two cohort studies. Ann Intern Med. 2010;153:289-298.

Renowned Cleveland Clinic researcher Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., highlights the need to change standard approaches to heart disease in an article to be published next week in the American Journal of Cardiology. Dr. Esselstyn explains why common methods of treating heart disease, such as stent and bypass surgeries, may have their place among a minority of patients, but for the vast majority, they are not as effective as low-fat, plant-based diets. The author acknowledges that physicians’ time constraints can limit the ability to provide information to patients. But ultimately, educated patients experience weight loss, blood pressure normalization, and improved or resolved diabetes, angina, and heart disease.

Esselstyn CB. Is the present therapy for coronary artery disease the radical mastectomy of the twenty-first century? Am J Cardiol. 2010;106:902-904.