Lluis Serra-Majem

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria | ULPGC · Department of Clinical Sciences & Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences

Background and aims The aim of this study was to ascertain the association between the consumption of different categories of edible olive oils (virgin olive oils and olive oil) and olive pomace oil and ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) in participants in the PREDIMED-Plus study, a trial of lifestyle modification for weight and cardiovascular eve...

Background Few studies have examined the associations of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and its precursors (choline, betaine, dimethylglycine, and L-carnitine) with the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF). This study sought to investigate these associations. Methods Prospective associations of these metabolites with incident AF...

Introduction and objectives The ankle-brachial index (ABI) is an indicator of peripheral artery disease (PAD). The aim of this study was to assess the association between PAD, measured with the ABI, and cognitive function in persons with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome. Methods Cross-sectional study conducted with baseline data from t...

Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled ana...

The population of the Canary Islands has been exposed to high levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Biomonitoring studies are essential to know the temporal trend in residue levels, particularly of substances banned decades ago. The purpose of this study was to analyze the distribution of plasma concentrations of 59 POPs in 175 participan...

Objective We address the hypothesis that the extraordinary sandstorm occurred on 22-24 February 2020 might have a role in the different cumulated incidence of COVID-19 cases between the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, since it obliged to reduce significantly air traffic and forced to suspend all major carnival street events in all most locati...

Background Large randomized trials testing the effect of a multifactorial weight-loss lifestyle intervention including Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) on renal function are lacking. Here, we evaluated the 1-year efficacy of an intensive weight-loss intervention with an energy-reduced MedDiet (erMedDiet) plus increased physical activity (PA) on renal f...

One-year dietary quality change according to the preceding maximum weight in a lifestyle intervention program (PREDIMED-Plus trial, 55-75-year-old overweight or obese adults; n = 5695) was assessed. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake. A total of 3 groups were made according to the difference between baseline...

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) is essential to healthy mental and physical development in early life. However, the prevalence of physical inactivity, which is considered a key modifiable driver of childhood obesity, has reached alarming levels among European youth. There is a need to update the data for Spain, in order to establish if curren...

Background: Although the association between glutamate and glutamine in relation to cardiometabolic disorders has been evaluated, the role of these metabolites in the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) remains unknown. Objectives: We examined associations of glutamate, glutamine, and the glutamine-to-glutamate ratio w...

Scope: To assess whether following a Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) improved atherothrombosis biomarkers in high cardiovascular risk individuals. Methods and results: In 358 random volunteers from the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea trial, we assessed the 1-year effects on atherothrombosis markers of an intervention with MedDiet, enriched with v...

Due to the lack of specific and standardized treatments for the management of fibromyalgia (FM), available evidence suggests a multidisciplinary approach, and nutrition represents an important therapeutic strategy. This work aims to update the relationship between FM and nutrition, through a review of more recent scientific evidence based on a syst...

Background The prevalence of overweight/obesity and related manifestations such as metabolic syndrome (MetS) is increasing worldwide. High energy density diets, usually with low nutrient density, are among the main causes. Some high-quality dietary patterns like the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) have been linked to the prevention and better control...

Resumen Introducción y objetivos El índice tobillo-brazo (ITB) es un indicador de enfermedad arterial periférica (EAP). El objetivo de este estudio es evaluar la asociación entre la EAP medida con el ITB y el rendimiento cognitivo de individuos con sobrepeso u obesidad y síndrome metabólico. Métodos Estudio transversal realizado con los datos bas...

Purpose To assess the association between the consumption of non-soy legumes and different subtypes of non-soy legumes and serum uric acid (SUA) or hyperuricemia in elderly individuals with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome. Methods A cross-sectional analysis was conducted in the framework of the PREDIMED-Plus study. We included 6329 pa...

Background: Body weight dissatisfaction is a hindrance to following a healthy lifestyle and it has been associated with weight concerns. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the association between the adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle (diet and exercise) and the desired body weight loss in an adult Mediterranean population wit...

Introduction In sub-Saharan Mozambique, high adolescent fertility rates are a significant public health problem. Understanding the consequences of teenage pregnancies facilitates effective strategies for improving the quality of care of both mother and the newborn. Aims To identify the factors associated with adolescent motherhood in Tete (Mozambi...

Aims Physical activity has consistently been shown to improve cardiovascular health and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels. However, only small and heterogeneous studies have investigated the effect of exercise on high-density lipoprotein functions. Our aim is to evaluate, in the largest observational study to date, the association between...

Food waste is a major environmental issue that must be tackled in order to achieve a sustainable food supply chain. Currently, in Spain there are no studies that examine the amounts and sources of plate waste (PW) produced by both household and out-of-home consumption. The present study aims to provide this information from a representative sample...

Purpose We aimed to evaluate associations between compliance with recommendations for total water intake (TWI) and total water intake from fluids (TWIF), and some socio-demographic and lifestyle factors of a senior Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk. Methods Cross-sectional analysis with data of 1902 participants from the PREDIME...

Background & aims Epidemiological data on iron status and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are still controversial. The aim of this study was to determine whether low serum iron (SI) levels are associated with an increased odds of first CVD event in a population at high cardiovascular risk. Methods Case-control study design nested within the “PREvenci...

Introduction and objectives Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a combination of various cardiovascular risk factors with a major impact on morbidity and premature mortality. However, the impact of MetS on self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is unknown. This study evaluated the HRQoL in a Spanish adult population aged 55 years and older w...

The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the level of physical activity (PA) and the degree of obesity with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in individuals with metabolic syndrome (MetS) who participated in the Predimed-Plus study. A total of 6875 subjects between 55 and 75 years of age with MetS were selected...

Scope The plasma metabolomics profiles of protein intake has been rarely investigated. We aimed to identify the distinct plasma metabolomics profiles associated with overall intakes of protein as well as with intakes from animal and plant protein sources. Methods and Results Cross‐sectional analysis using data from 1,833 participants at high risk...

Limited longitudinal studies have been conducted to evaluate colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence based on the updated 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) recommendations or other global lifestyle indices, and none in aged populations at high cardiovascular risk. We aimed to assess the association between...

Healthy lifestyle factors, such as physical activity (PA) and Mediterranean diet (MD), decrease the likelihood of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS). The aim of this study was to report main lifestyle components and related factors according to the MetS severity. Cross-sectional analysis was done of baseline lifestyle factors from 5739 participan...

Purpose Cardiovascular disease remains the global leading cause of death. We evaluated at baseline the association between the adherence to eight a priori high-quality dietary scores and the prevalence of individual and clustered cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) in the PREDIMED-Plus cohort. Methods All PREDIMED-Plus participants (6874 men and wo...

Dietary polyphenol intake is associated with improvement of metabolic disturbances. The aims of the present study are to describe dietary polyphenol intake in a population with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to examine the association between polyphenol intake and the components of MetS. This cross-sectional analysis involved 6633 men and women incl...

Aims The association between caffeinated coffee consumption and atrial fibrillation remains unclear. Recent studies suggest an inverse association only between a moderate caffeinated coffee consumption and atrial fibrillation, but others have reported no association. The aim of our study was to prospectively assess the association between caffeinat...

Objective: The hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTGW) phenotype is characterized by abdominal obesity and high levels of triglycerides. In a cross-sectional assessment of PREDIMED-Plus trial participants at baseline, HTGW phenotype prevalence was evaluated, associated risk factors were analyzed, and the lifestyle of individuals with metabolic syndrome...

Aim We studied fasting plasma glucose (FPG) as a determinant of weight change on high-fat diets in the PREDIMED trial. Methods A total of 3,622 participants were randomized to receive one of two Mediterranean diets (n=2,616) or a control diet (n=1,006) for 5 years and had complete data for baseline FPG and body-weight development. Weight change by...

Physical activity (PA) has been hypothesized to be effective to maintaining cognitive function and delay cognitive decline in the elderly, but physical fitness (PF) could be a better predictor of cognitive function. We aimed to study the association between PA and PF with cognitive function and quality of life using cross-sectional data from 6874 p...

Background: Glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolites have been associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the associations of these metabolites with T2D incidence and the potential effect of dietary interventions remain unclear. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the association of baseline and 1-y changes in...

Background: Whether short sleep duration or high sleep variability may predict less weight loss and reduction in measures of adiposity in response to lifestyle interventions is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the 12-month changes in weight and adiposity measures between those participants with short or adequate sleep duration and tho...

Background: There is limited prospective evidence on the association between physical activity (PA) and inflammation in older adults. Our aim was to assess the associations between changes in PA and changes in the inflammatory profile in older individuals who are overweight or obese. Methods: This prospective study included 489 men and women, ag...

Active commuting (AC) has been proposed as a great opportunity to increase physical activity level (PA) in children and adolescents. The aim of the present study is to determine the associations between AC (walk and cycle commuting) and non-AC (motor vehicle commuting) with PA levels, and with AC and sedentarism in Spanish children and adolescents....

Background: Studies have failed to establish a clear link between high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, leading to the hypothesis that the atheroprotective role of HDL lies in its biological activity rather than in its cholesterol content. However, to date, the association between HDL functional characteristics and...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized in 2010 the Mediterranean diet (MD) as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. A few years later, in 2013, this recognition was extended to three new countries: Croatia, Cyprus, and Portugal. This recognition as world heritage, with the consequent increased v...

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in finding a dietary pattern that satisfies a population’s nutritional requirements. The Mediterranean dietary pattern encloses a beneficial fatty acid profile with high monounsaturated fatty acid content, low glycemic index carbohydrates, high dietary fiber intake, and antioxidant compounds tha...

Background: Consumption of certain foods is associated with long-term weight gains and abdominal fat accumulation in healthy, middle-aged and young, non-obese participants. Whether the same foods might be associated with changes in adiposity in elderly population at high cardiovascular risk is less known. Objective: Using yearly repeated measure...

Introduction: the prevalence of overweight and obesity showed and increasing trend over the past few years. The burden of this epidemic represents a public health issue worldwide. Spain, and especially the Canary Islands, are not exempt. Pregnancy is a situation of weight gain, and the amount of such increase during gestation can affect the health...

Background: This study explored the association between inactive time and measures of adiposity, clinical parameters, obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome components. It further examined the impact of reallocating inactive time to time in bed, light physical activity (LPA) or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on cardio-metab...

Background: Overall quality of dietary carbohydrate intake rather than total carbohydrate intake may determine the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Objective: We examined 6- and 12-mo changes in carbohydrate quality index (CQI) and concurrent changes in several CVD risk factors in a multicenter, randomized, primary-prevention trial (PREDIME...

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is, culturally and historically, the nutritional pattern shared by people living in the olive-tree growing areas of the Mediterranean basin. It is of great importance for its potential preventive effect against cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) study, a Spanish multicentre r...

Background: The pandemic of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) requires the identification of new predictor biomarkers. Biomarkers potentially modifiable with lifestyle changes deserve a special interest. Our aims were to analyze: (a) The associations of lysine, 2-aminoadipic acid (2-AAA) or pipecolic acid with the risk of T2D...

Motivation Large-scale untargeted metabolomics experiments lead to detection of thousands of novel metabolic features as well as false positive artifacts. With the incorporation of pooled QC samples and corresponding bioinformatics algorithms, those measurement artifacts can be well quality controlled. However, it is impracticable for all the studi...

Sewage sludge (SS) is a complex mixture of potentially toxic compounds, which may affect the environment. Many methodologies are being implemented in order to assess the risk that SS may cause after the exposition, but usually they rely on chemical analyses that cannot predict their toxicological impact. Therefore, biological systems are essential...

Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for type 2 diabetes (T2D). Moving towards healthier diets, namely, diets rich in bioactive compounds, could decrease the odds of suffering T2D. However, those individuals with high body mass index (BMI) may have altered absorption or metabolism of some nutrients and dietary components, including pol...

Dietary habits amongst the Spanish population are currently a relevant cause for concern, as macronutrient profiles and micronutrient intakes seem to be inadequate and globally moving away from the traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern. However, recent food consumption patterns have not been fully assessed. In the present study, our aim was the...

Diet-related risk factors and physical inactivity are among the leading risk factors for disability and are responsible for a large proportion of the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases. Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) are useful tools for nutrition policies and public health strategies to promote healthier eating and physical activit...

Bifenox and Dichlobenil belong to the commonly used in Poland in agriculture group of herbicides and their residues are often detected in the environment. They are poorly known regarding their possible carcinogenic and antibacterial effect at the cellular level. Therefore, we decided to study their activity in bacterial strains Aliivibrio fisheri,...

The prevention of bone mass loss and related complications associated with osteoporosis is a significant public health issue. The Mediterranean diet (MD) is favorably associated with bone health, a potentially modifiable risk factor. The objective of this research was to determine MD adherence in a sample of women with and without osteoporosis. In...

Importance High-quality dietary patterns may help prevent chronic disease, but limited data exist from randomized trials about the effects of nutritional and behavioral interventions on dietary changes. Objective To assess the effect of a nutritional and physical activity education program on dietary quality. Design, Setting, and Participants Pre...

Excessive sodium consumption is associated with adverse health effects. An elevated dietary intake of salt (sodium chloride) has been related to high blood pressure or hypertension, a major but modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, as well as to other ill health conditions. In the present work, our aim was to describe the contribution...

Diet is one of the key modifiable behaviors that can help to control and prevent non-communicable chronic diseases. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the overall diet composition of the population through non-invasive and independent indexes or scores as diet quality indexes (DQIs). The primary aim of the present work was to estimate the adequ...

Background and aims: The prevalence of hyperuricemia has increased substantially in recent decades. It has been suggested that it is an independent risk factor for weight gain, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and cardiovascular disease. Results from epidemiological studies conducted in different study populations hav...

Introduction and objectives: The Life's Simple 7 strategy of the American Heart Association proposes 7 metrics of ideal cardiovascular health: body mass index (BMI) <25mg/m2, not smoking, healthy diet, moderate physical activity ≥ 150min/wk, total blood cholesterol <200mg/dL, systolic and diastolic blood pressures <120 and <80mmHg, respectively, a...

Research examining associations between objectively-measured napping time and type 2 diabetes (T2D) is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate daytime napping in relation to T2D and adiposity measures in elderly individuals from the Mediterranean region. A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 2190 elderly participants with overweight/obesit...

Scope To assess whether following a Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) improves atherothrombosis biomarkers in high cardiovascular risk individuals. Methods and results In 358 random volunteers from the PREDIMED trial ( Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea ), we assessed the 1-year effects on atherothrombosis markers of an intervention with MedDiet, enrich...

Scope: The relationship between red wine (RW) consumption and metabolism is poorly understood. We aimed to assess the systemic metabolomic profiles in relation to frequent RW consumption as well as the ability of a set of metabolites to discriminate RW consumers. Methods and results: Cross-sectional analysis of 1,157 participants. Subjects were...

Resumen Introducción y objetivos La estrategia Life's Simple 7 de la American Heart Association propuso 7 métricas de salud cardiovascular ideal: índice de masa corporal (IMC) < 25, no fumar, dieta saludable, actividad física moderada ≥ 150 min a la semana, colesterol total < 200 mg/dl, presión arterial sistólica < 120 mmHg y diastólica < 80 mmHg...

Background: The effect of dietary fat intake on the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and in turn on cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear in individuals at high CVD risk. Objective: To assess the association between fat intake and MetS components in an adult Mediterranean population at high CVD risk. Design: Baseline assessment of nutritional adequ...

Background: High-density lipoprotein (HDL) functionality and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) atherogenic traits can describe the role of both particles on cardiovascular diseases more accurately than HDL- or LDL-cholesterol levels. However, it is unclear how these lipoprotein properties are particularly affected by different cardiovascular risk fact...

More than 50 years after the Seven Countries Study, a large number of epidemiological studies have explored the relationship between the Mediterranean diet (MD) and health, through cross-sectional, some longitudinal and a few experimental studies. The overall results show strong evidence suggesting a protective effect of the MD mainly on the risk o...

Introduction: Objectives: the culture and the eating habits of a territory give shape its gastronomy and determine the nutritional and health status of its population. We set the goal of reviewing food, culture, gastronomy and the nutritional and health status of the Catalan population. Methods: bibliographic and documentation search. Results: the...

Desde el Grupo de Expertos es posible plantear las siguientes conclusiones siguiendo el modelo DAFO de análisis (debilidades, amenazas, fortalezas y oportunidades).