• Título:  ESTUDI DEL BENEFICI DE LA INGESTA DE POLIFENOLS EN UNA POBLACIÓ D¿EDAT AVANÇADA I AMB RISC CARDIOVASCULAR
• Autor:  TRESSERRA RIMBAU, ANNA
• Universidad:  Universidad de Barcelona
• Departamento:  C- NUTRICION Y BROMATOLOGIA
• Fecha de Lectura:  24/10/2014
• Programa de doctorado:  ALIMENTACIÓ I NUTRICIÓ
• Dirección: 
  • LAMUELA RAVENTÓS, ROSA MARIA (DIRECTOR)
  • MEDINA REMÓN, ALEXANDER (CODIRECTOR)
• Tribunal: 
  • Ruiz-Canela López, Miguel (PRESIDENTE)
  • IZQUIERDO PULIDO, MARÍA (SECRETARIO)
  • ZAMORA ROS, RAUL (VOCAL)
• Descriptores: 
  • PATOLOGIA CARDIOVASCULAR
  • EPIDEMIOLOGIA
  • SALUD PUBLICA
• Localización:  BIBLIOTECA-FAC.FARMACIA
• Resumen:
  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than a quarter of the world¿s population suffers from a circulatory system-related disease. Nowadays, cardiovascular (CV) diseases are the leading cause of mortality and disability in developed countries. In Spain, in 2012, CV diseases were responsible for 122,097 deaths, which represent 33.3% of total deaths, followed by cancer (27.5%) and respiratory-related diseases (11.7%). Moreover, CV diseases are not only a health issue, but also an economic problem, requiring an annual expenditure of 3,000 million euros by the Spanish state, or 17.7% of the total hospital care under the Spanish National Health System. Prevention, even more than treatment, of CV diseases is a priority for the public health agencies, which make huge efforts to raise awareness in the population with the aim of reversing this trend. Our role as researchers is to study the risk factors of these diseases and how to reduce them, for instance, by changing lifestyles and dietary habits. The Mediterranean Diet (MD) and other diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been proposed as an effective way to reduce CV risk factors because they are rich in antioxidant components, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids. In this study, we focused on polyphenols, a group of compounds that are the main source of bioactive compounds in our diet and have proven beneficial effects on our health because they improve certain risk factors such as atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, inflammation biomarkers, or blood pressure, among others. Polyphenols are a large and heterogeneous group of compounds: there are hundreds of molecules described in many foods and beverages. Such variety becomes a problem when studying their effects, bioavailability or the mechanisms of action that explain their benefits. This is the reason why usually only one polyphenol or a group of polyphenols is chosen to study in detail. However, this does not allow a global view and minor polyphenol groups have been systematically excluded from the studies. Therefore, this thesis aims, firstly, to estimate the total intake of polyphenols in the Spanish PREDIMED (PRevención con DIeta MEDiterránea) population and to evaluate the association of dietary polyphenols with a lower risk of CV disease or mortality. Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ) are widely used in nutritional studies. However, nutritional biomarkers are good complements because they cover the limitations of FFQ. This thesis reviews recent evidences on biomarkers of polyphenol intake. Moreover, a new, fast and simple method to determine polyphenols in urine is explained. This method was an adaptation of the colorimetric Folin-Ciocalteu (F-C) method. Hypertension is a very frequent and much studied CV risk factor. It is known that consumption of polyphenol-rich foods helps to decrease blood pressure (BP) and, therefore, one of the CV diseases risk factors. In this thesis we reviewed the last evidences about the influence of polyphenols on BP and the mechanisms of action that explain this effect. This knowledge has been applied to the PREDIMED population to demonstrate that, indeed, the BP decrease was mediated by the increase in plasma nitric oxide (NO). Alcoholic beverages have traditionally been a source of conflict when it comes to establishing dietary recommendations, since the consequences of excessive alcohol intake create a bad image for the products. Therefore, our aim was to provide more information about moderate wine consumption and metabolic syndrome, a disorder arising from a combination of the main CV risk factors: obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and hyperglycaemia.