Don't chop tomatoes out of your diet

Here's our line on the new 'tomato pill' - or Ateronon to give it its trade name - which was launched this week in a blaze of newspaper headlines proclaiming its powers to stave off both heart attack and stroke.

We are urging people to take a more cautious approach to the natural supplement, which is not as yet clinically proven but which scientists linked to Cambridge University claim can block so-called "bad" cholesterol from clogging the arteries.

Our Medical Director, Professor Peter Weissberg, says the public will need to exercise caution and patience. And, it seems, the pill is not a substitute for eating real tomatoes, and other fruit and vegetables.

"As always, we caution people to wait for any new drug or modified ‘natural’ product to be clinically proven to offer benefits before taking it. It will take some time, and several clinical trials, to provide such evidence for Ateronon.

"In the meantime, our advice to heart disease patients or those at high risk is to rely on proven medications prescribed by their doctor, and aim to get the benefits of a Mediterranean diet by eating plenty of fresh fruit and veg.

"We need to be clear in this instance, that the British Heart Foundation supported some of the basic science at Cambridge University underpinning the development of this product over a decade ago and, as such, could benefit from its commercialisation."

So don't chop the tomatoes out of your diet just yet would be our advice.

What do you think about the new 'tomato pill'? Let us know by posting a comment below...

Blot clots breakthrough by BHF researchers

New Scientist magazine reports some exciting new BHF-funded research this week.

Dr Yotis Senis (who we can reveal skateboards to work - how cool is that?!) has made a discovery about how blood clot formation is triggered.

This could be a vital step towards developing better, safer, medicines to prevent heart attacks and strokes, which happen when a blood clot builds up and blocks blood supply to the heart or brain.

When an artery is diseased, platelets – small cells in the blood, pictured above – can stick to the inside of the blood vessel and clump together to form a clot that blocks blood flow.

In the first video below you can see this clearly occurring in a little blood vessel under a microscope – the platelets have been made fluorescent so we can see them clearly.



As part of his research, Yotis used platelets that had been engineered to lack a protein called CD148. In the next video below you can see that these platelets can’t build up on the vessel wall.



This could mean that if we could develop medicines that block CD148, they might be effective at preventing heart attacks.

Read more about the research and its potential application here

He's got science in his blood!

As the nation's heart charity, one of the main focuses of the British Heart Foundation is investing in pioneering research.

We fund around 1,200 research projects investigating every aspect of heart disease - from causes and safer drugs to improving surgical techniques.

One of the BHF's projects is at the University of Birmingham Medical School, where a team of researchers are investigating human platelets. When blood vessels are damaged, for example if you cut yourself, platelets become sticky and plug the wound.

By learning more about how this happens, the team could uncover new treatments for strokes and heart disease.

Senior research scientist Dr Yotis Senis is one of the researchers on the project. He talks to the Guardian about what it's like being a scientist and what brought about his passion for blood.

Read the interview with Dr Senis in The Guardian.

Got something to say about heart research? Post a comment and let us know what you think.