Is it beneficial for heart patients to eat a lot of blueberries or get an influenza vaccination? New professor at Aarhus University Ole Frøbert is attempting to find the answers with his experimental research.

2021.09.07 | Lene Halgaard

Ole Frøbert is a medical doctor and specialist in interventional cardiology. He takes up his professorship at the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University on 1 September 2021. Photo: Engedal Fotografi

Ole Frøbert conducts research into new forms of treatment of cardiovascular and lifestyle diseases. This includes finding out why bears are able to eat such large amounts of blueberries that they become fat – but can then hibernate through the winter without damaging their heart. He has therefore taken blood samples from sleeping bears and found evidence that blueberries have a positive effect on the heart function because they act to lower cholesterol. Ole Frøbert is now examining whether blueberries in high concentrations can practically help heart patients in a study with 900 participants.

The newly-appointed professor, who is also affiliated with the Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital and Örebro University Hospital in Sweden, has conducted another study to examine whether influenza vaccination reduces the risk of new blood clots and mortality among heart patients. More than 2,500 patients with a blood clot in the heart participated in the study, which revealed that receiving the influenza vaccination within three days following hospitalisation for a blood clot, reduces the risk of dying due to heart disease over the next year by forty per cent.

With the professorship, Ole Frøbert wishes to strengthen collaboration involving experimental research in the fields of diabetes, heart disease and clinical pharmacology in Aarhus and Sweden. He hopes that this will lead to better treatment of heart disease and lifestyle diseases.

Contact

Professor, Consultant & PhD Ole Frøbert

Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine,
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Clinical Pharmacology,

Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus and

Örebro University Hospital

Email: ole.frobert@regionorebrolan.se