DR. MICHAEL MOSLEY: It’s not just about eating olive oil, nuts and fish… Living like you’re in the Mediterranean is good for you too!

It’s been twenty years since my father died prematurely of heart disease, and it still saddens me to think that his premature death meant he never got to see his grandchildren grow up.

He passed away at the age of 74, which feels quite young these days.

It is not an isolated tragedy; Each year, more than 66,000 Britons have their lives cut short by heart disease – and most of them are men.

A new study from the University of Aberdeen shows that men not only have a 42 percent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than women, but also have their first heart attacks much younger.

Men are more likely to smoke, have untreated hypertension (high blood pressure), and are generally not as good at taking care of their hearts.

Meanwhile, at least until menopause, women are protected by their hormones, especially estrogen.

According to the British Heart Foundation, even if women develop fatty plaques in the arteries supplying their hearts, it usually occurs in smaller vessels, making it less likely to lead to a fatal heart attack.

That said, because heart attacks are less common in women, they are often missed. Research shows that women are 50 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed when they have a heart attack (partly because their symptoms can also differ).

But if, like me, you know you’re at higher risk for heart disease and heart attack because of a family history, there are ways to reduce it.

As regular readers of this column know, I am a big fan of the traditional Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, nuts and oily fish, with lots of fruits and vegetables.

Following this diet for over a decade has helped me maintain my weight and keep my blood pressure and blood sugar levels in a healthy range. And major studies show that eating more of these foods can cut your risk of heart disease, stroke, and developing type 2 diabetes by nearly half.

But it’s not as simple as adding a little more olive oil or oily fish to your life. While these foods are anti-inflammatory (and help chronic inflammation cause heart disease), there’s so much more we can benefit from when we look at the Mediterranean lifestyle.

In fact, it is the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle and not just the food that is protective and beneficial. So much so that scientists in Spain have now created something called the Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (or MEDLIFE), which takes into account other aspects of the Mediterranean lifestyle that are helpful, including activity levels and socializing with friends.

With the MEDLIFE you not only score ‘points’ if you consume more olive oil, but also if you socialize for at least a few hours at the weekend and watch TV for less than an hour a day, for example.

And you don’t have to live in the Mediterranean to enjoy these benefits. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently examined the lifestyles of more than 110,000 middle-aged Britons, using data from the UK Biobank (which collects in-depth health and genetic data on half a million volunteers). Participants were scored using the MEDLIFE index and followed for an average of nine years.

Those with a higher MEDLIFE score not only had a lower risk of heart disease, but also a 29 percent lower risk of cancer and premature death.

Interestingly, the factors predicting the lowest risk of death from heart disease were being physically active and socially active. That may be because exercise and socializing are both good ways to reduce stress, which are known to increase the risk of heart disease.

But how do you know if you’re at risk for a heart attack?

A useful tool is the online Qrisk calculator used by general practitioners. Here you enter information such as your age, gender, height and weight, and (if you know them) your cholesterol and blood pressure.

When I did this, it told me I had a heart age of 60 (I’m 66) and my chance of having a heart attack in the next ten years is 9 percent (the average for a healthy person of the same age). age, gender and ethnicity is 13 percent). But genetics also play an important role. My father had a heart attack in his fifties, and when I ticked that box on the Qrisk calculator, my heart age jumped to 66 and my risk of having a heart attack in the next ten years jumped to over 12 percent.

If your Qrisk is above 10 per cent, the NHS recommends you see your GP and possibly prescribe statins.

There are more personalized ways to identify heart risk, including a CT scan of the heart, which I tried myself for a TV documentary a few years ago. This revealed plaque (cholesterol clumps) in my main coronary arteries and the cardiologist recommended that I start on statins to stabilize the clumps and minimize the risk of them breaking off and causing a heart attack.

I did just that – while adhering to my Mediterranean lifestyle rules – and a recent repeat scan shows that the plaque appears to have shrunk.

These scans are available on the NHS (usually offered to people with existing heart problems or a strong family history of heart disease – in private it can cost £1,000 plus).

Since prevention is always better than cure, why not adopt a more relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle to protect your heart?

Drizzle olive oil on your veggies, snack on nuts, go for a walk with friends — and take a nap every now and then. That doesn’t sound so bad, right?

Banana ‘saboteur’ in your smoothie

There are certain fruits — apples, pears, blueberries, and blackberries — that are packed with flavanols, powerful plant compounds that have a range of benefits, including protecting cells from damage that could lead to cancer.

Then there are bananas, Britain’s most popular fruit, which are rich in fiber and vitamins.

You might think that combining both in a smoothie will give you a big dose of health benefits. In fact, that won’t happen, according to new research from Reading University.

Volunteers drank a mixed berry smoothie, or one with added banana.

Blood and urine samples showed that those who drank the banana smoothie had 84 percent less flavanols in their bodies. The researchers think this is because bananas have high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, which appears to break down flavanols.

Are wrinkly rats the key to longevity?

Naked mole rats are weird-looking creatures, and they fascinate scientists because they can live more than 40 years — nearly ten times longer than similar-sized rodents — without developing diseases like dementia, heart disease or arthritis.

Now it seems that the key to their good health and longevity may be their naturally high levels of hyaluronic acid (a substance also found in our skin and in the fluid around our joints, which keeps them lubricated).

In high concentrations, hyaluronic acid also has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. US researchers successfully transferred the gene responsible for hyaluronic acid production from naked mole rats to mice and found that the mice lived longer and healthier lives, the journal Nature reported.

Further studies are underway, including a human trial of a drug that prevents the breakdown of hyaluronic acid in the body