LISTENER MARCH 7 2020by Ruth Nichol
HEALTH
ThisLife
GETTY^ IM
AGESD
on’t tell the salt police, but British
cardiac surgeon Samer Nashef doesn’t
believe that giving up salt will lower
your risk of getting coronary heart
disease. And, he says, the scientific
evidence supports this heretical view.
“Salt is definitely not harmful,”
says the author of The Angina Monologues, who will
appear at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts in
Wellington on March 11. “A recent major meta-
analysis of all the random-controlled trials found
that getting people to reduce their salt intake won’t
make a blind bit of difference to whether they get
heart disease.”
Nashef also believes you’re better off taking
a statin to modify your blood cholesterol than
cutting down on high-cholesterol foods such as
eggs, full-fat dairy products and red meat. He says
statins are much more effective at modifying blood
cholesterol than even the most draconian dietary
restrictions.
Coronary heart disease is
the world’s leading cause of
death. It’s caused by a build-
up of fatty deposits in the
coronary arteries, which
makes it harder for oxygen-
filled blood to get to the
heart. This can cause angina- a sense of tightness in the
chest, often accompanied by
breathlessness – and may eventually
cause heart failure or a heart attack.
There’s a lot of conflicting advice
about how to reduce the risk of coro-
nary heart disease, but Nashef says we
should focus on the things that are
proven to work: don’t smoke, don’t
get fat, exercise regularly – and if you
have diabetes or high blood pressure,
get them properly treated. For thosewhose coronary arteries are already
showing signs of narrowing, take
a statin. “The evidence shows that
people who have coronary disease do
better if they take statins.”
It’s advice he follows himself. In
2012, Nashef, who has performed
coronary artery bypass grafting
(CABG) on thousands of patients
with severe angina, started get-
ting an ache in his chest while he
was exercising – one of the early
symptoms of angina. Subsequent
investigation revealed plaque in
his coronary arteries, though not
enough to need surgical interven-
tion. However, he now takes a statin:
“Of course I do – I do what I’m
told, and I follow the evidence.”Pass the salt
and statins
British cardiac surgeon and
author Samer Nashef is
bringing his humane advice
about diet down under.
Don’t smoke, don’t get
fat, exercise regularly- and if you have
diabetes or high blood
pressure, get them
properly treated.
NUTRITION • FOOD • WINE • PSYCHOLOGY • SPORT
Samer Nashef