Artichoke Protects Us Against Heart Disease, According to Studies

By Kyle J. Norton

Artichoke may be used as a natural and herbal remedy for the treatment of heart disease with no side effects, according to studies.

Heart disease is a class of diseases associated with interruption of blood flow in the blood vessel or damage of the heart tissue, including coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction.

According to the statistics, heart disease is a leading cause of death in the US. Approximately 2000 people in the general population die of heart disease every day.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of heart disease, that kills over 370,000 people annually.

Most common risk factors associated with heart disease are aging, family history with heart disease, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and cholesterol, obesity, smoking, and stress epidemiologically.

However, most people with some of the above risk factors have never developed heart disease. Symptoms of heart disease completely depend on the infected location.

Some researchers suggested that by making a change in lifestyle accompanied by moderate physical activity such as walking, the risk of heart disease can be prevented.

The American College of Cardiology wrote in the article of Heart Disease: Lifestyle Changes to Lower Risk. "Start slowly, and go at a pace you can manage. Try to do at least 2½ hours of moderate exercise a week. One way to do this is to be active 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week". 

"Healthy eating starts with learning new ways to eat, such as adding more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and cutting back on foods that have a lot of saturated fat, sodium, and sugar" 

"Getting active and eating a healthy diet can help you lose extra weight and  quit smoking"

Finally, the article continued, "Even though you are taking medicine, it is always important to make lifestyle changes that keep your heart and your body healthy".

Artichoke is a perennial thistle of Cynara cardunculus species of the Cynara genus, belonging to the family Carduoideae, native to Southern Europe around the Mediterranean.

The herbal plant has been used in traditional medicine as a liver protective and detoxified agent, and for the treatment of digestive disorders, abdominal pain gas and bloating, etc.

Finding a natural ingredient for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases has been a dream of many scientists. Researchers at the joint study led by the IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, examined the effects of vegetables, including artichoke on CVD.

The joint study included a total of 38 subjects at risk of CVD. After, a week of the run-in period, participants were randomly assigned to one of the following 4-week interventions: low vegetable consumption (800 g of vegetables/week) or high vegetable consumption (4200 g of vegetables/week).


According to the assays that record immunological, and antioxidant markers, leukocyte and lymphocyte expression of the gut-homing β7 integrin, there were no significant changes detected in clinical, immunological, and antioxidant markers in biological samples, except for an increase in white blood cell count for the low vegetable consumption group.

Immune system's innate and adaptive immune responses play an essential role in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases by inhibiting the pro-inflammatory expression.

Vegetable consumption group exerts a CVD protective effect in modulating markers of immune function and antioxidant status in patients with CVD. In healthy individuals, intake of vegetables does not induce a change of both antioxidant and inflammatory markers associated with immune function, particularly in nonsmoking men.

These results strongly suggested that vegetables modulate the function of the immune system according to the needs of the body.

In other to reveal more information about artichoke anti CVD activity, Dr. Rondanelli M and colleagues at the University of Pavia investigated the artichoke extracts on the cardiovascular disease on both animals and man.

Injection of artichoke not only reduced the levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream through its hypolipidemic activity but also inhibited the expression of high blood glucose and free radicals through the antioxidant and hypoglycemic activity.

The results indicated artichoke reduced the risk and progression of cardiovascular disease by improving the production of antioxidant enzymes against oxidative stress in the initiation of low-grade inflammation, a hallmark of CVD.

Futhermore, artichoke also decreases the levels of blood cholesterol and glucose, the cluster conditions associated with the risk CVD, epidemiologically.

Taken altogether, artichoke which processes anti cardiovascular diseases activity through several mechanisms may be considered a functional remedy for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, pending to the confirmation of large sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Effects of High Consumption of Vegetables on Clinical, Immunological, and Antioxidant Markers in Subjects at Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases by Peluso I1, Raguzzini A1, Catasta G1, Cammisotto V1, Perrone A1, Tomino C2, Toti E1, Serafini M. (Hindawi)
(2) Health-promoting properties of artichoke in preventing cardiovascular disease by its lipidic and glycemic-reducing action by Rondanelli M1, Monteferrario F, Perna S, Faliva MA, Opizzi A. (PubMed)
(3) Heart Disease: Lifestyle Changes to Lower Risk by The American College of Cardiology