Heme Iron From Diet as a Risk Factor for Coronary Heart Disease in Women With Type 2 Diabetes
- Lu Qi, MD, PHD12,
- Rob M. van Dam, PHD1,
- Kathryn Rexrode, MD, MPH3 and
- Frank B. Hu, MD, PHD124
- 1Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
- 2Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
- 3Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
- 4Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Lu Qi, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: nhlqi{at}channing.harvard.edu
Abstract
OBJECTIVE—Diabetes-related metabolic abnormality may aggravate the adverse effects of iron overload on cardiovascular health. However, little is known about whether iron consumption affects coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in diabetes.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We prospectively assessed the associations of long-term intakes of dietary iron and red meat with CHD risk among 6,161 women who reported a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
RESULTS—During 54,455 person-years of follow-up from 1980 through 2000, we documented 550 incident cases of CHD. After adjustment for age and BMI, high intakes of both heme iron and red meat were associated with a significantly increased risk of fatal CHD (P for trend = 0.003 and 0.018), coronary revascularization (P for trend = 0.02 and 0.06), and total CHD (P for trend = 0.0009 and 0.007). Women with the highest intake of heme iron had 50% (6–94%) increased risk of total CHD compared with those with the lowest intake. Further adjustment for other lifestyle and dietary factors did not appreciably change the associations. The positive association between heme iron and red meat intakes and CHD was more evident among postmenopausal women compared with premenopausal women.
CONCLUSIONS—Our data indicate that higher consumption of heme iron and red meat may increase CHD risk among women with type 2 diabetes.
Footnotes
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A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances.
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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- Accepted September 22, 2006.
- Received August 9, 2006.
- DIABETES CARE
