A joint study of the Cardiology Service at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (HUVH) and doctors from 9 teams of the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) in Barcelona, suggest that the prevalence of sclerosis and aortic valve stenosis (two of the most common consequences of complex surgeries in people over 65 years), is the same in our Mediterranean environment than in European or American regions.The conclusions of this study, which has been published at the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, demonstrate that the rate of people affected with aortic stenosis in Barcelona is very similar to the rate in other countries with different climates and diets. For that reason, researchers conclude that the Mediterranean Diet –which is indeed positive to prevent several heart diseases–, doesn’t protect the ageing of the aortic valve. Consequently, aortic stenosis is a pathology much more related with the ageing process of a person rather than with the arteriosclerosis process. The first hypothesis of the study proposed that, in the same way that Mediterranean diet reduces the mortality in coronary diseases, it might happen the same with aortic stenosis, a pathology which shares the same risk factors (smoking, hypertension and diabetes) and which generates treatments and specific, complex and expensive surgeries. To minimize this health problem, after this study the authors insist on the importance of the prevention and control of the risk factors. The sclerosis and aortic stenosis happens when there is dilation or narrowing of the valve in which goes out the blood of the heart, so there are not many symptoms before its appearance, and when it appears it must be operated immediately because it provokes death.In this study, led by Dr. Pilar Tornos, coordinator of the Valvular Heart Diseases Program of the Cardiology Service at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, researchers analyzed more than 900 random clinical cases among patients over 65 years from the 9 teams of the ICS in Catalonia. Of the total number of heart valves’ operations done at Vall d’Hebron, in the 60% of the cases, the aortic valve had developed a degenerative disorder.