Olive Oil and Health

As doctors say, prevention is the best cure and the most significant factor for a healthy life.

If we put it as simply as possible, without scientific terminology, we can say about the link between olive oil and health:

1. Many diseases are caused by the uncontrolled overeating and, more specifically, foods high in saturated fats (animal fats) which result in arteriosclerosis and heart and heart vessel diseases.

Medical research has proved that Mediterranean countries, and especially Hellas, where olive oil consumption is very high, have the lowest incidence of heart and heart vessel diseases in the world. Decreasing the amount of animal fat and increasing the olive oil in our diet, we achieve an ideal combination for the prevention of deadly diseases like arteriosclerosis and heart attacks.

2. Recent medical research has shown that olive oil is ideal for the needs of the human body since it has the ability to isolate the fluids which result in kidney stones and thus relieve the pain and discomfort in the area.

3. Millions of people all over the world suffer from stomach problems and relevant disorders. A very serious disease is the stomach ulcer. As it already well known the use of olive oil in our daily diet has beneficial effects on the function of our digestive system since olive oil keeps the HCI at low levels in our stomach. Thus, olive oil is crucial for the effective functioning of our digestive system.

It is also proven that consuming olive oil in our diet helps:

A.  with the balancing of our metabolism and the good development of our body and tissue.
B.  the storage of enough vitamin E for our body
Olive oil helps us stay healthy by making our life more pleasant.

Olive oil in our life written by Dr. D. Th. Kremastinos Cardiology professor in the University of Athens and Chairman of the Hellenic College of Cardiology.

among others…. 

The scientific question being asked, after it was proved that it (olive oil) does help the heart, is in what way it does.
A series of experimental trials showed that a component of oil present in both the leaves and the core of the olive, called elaiovropine or elaiopine, reduces cholesterol levels by as much as 30-40% with a series of mechanisms that take place in the core of the cells and increases the resistance of the cardiac cell to ischaemia.
This medical phenomenon is called ‘Preconditioning’; that is, protection of the myocardium against ischaemia and heart attacks.
Researchers showed that the subjects who received 30-40 mg of elaiopine in their food, when they suffered clinically induced heart attacks, the extent of their heart attacks was 30-40% less severe compared to the ones who didn’t receive elaiopine. But what happens with people? What s the appropriate dosage to give humans the same results?

Research is underway and the answer will be available soon. The practical application of these findings in clinical procedures is that every person can take certain amounts of elaiopine which, on the one hand will reduce his (bad) cholesterol levels so as to protect his arteries against arteriosclerosis and on the other if he does have a heart attack the damage to the heart to be 30-40% less severe.