Cereal Fiber Best After Myocardial Infarction

Patients who survived myocardial infarction (MI) may benefit from higher dietary fiber intake, especially cereal fiber. A new study finds that increased consumption of fiber in MI patients is associated with lower all cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Using data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professional Follow-up Study, researchers identified 2258 women and 1840 men who were free of cardiovascular disease, stroke, or cancer at enrollment, survived a first MI during follow-up, and were free of stroke at the time of initial onset of MI. Food frequency was tracked via a pre-MI and at least 1 post-MI questionnaire.
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Over the 32-year follow-up (median 8.7 years for women and 9 years for men), there were 682 total and 336 cardiovascular deaths for women and 451 total and 222 cardiovascular deaths for men.

Researchers found that higher post-MI fiber intake was significantly associated with lower all cause mortality in age adjusted models for both men and women. Furthermore, cereal fiber (versus fruit or vegetable fiber) was more strongly associated with all cause mortality than other sources of dietary fiber.

Pre-MI dietary fiber was not associated with post-MI morality. However, increased fiber intake from before MI to after MI was significantly associated with lower all cause and cardiovascular mortality in both men and women.

Researchers concluded that high fiber intake might be an effective secondary prevention treatment after MI.

Reference:

Li S, Flint A, Pai J, et al. Dietary fiber intake and mortality among survivors of myocardial infraction: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2014;348:g2659.