National Cholesterol Education Program: report of the Expert Panel on Population Strategies for Blood Cholesterol Reduction: executive summary
Article Abstract:
Coronary heart disease kills over half a million Americans each year. The condition is characterized by atherosclerosis, in which cholesterol and other fats are deposited in the walls of the coronary arteries, which can eventually lead to heart attacks. The National Cholesterol Education Program was designed to raise public awareness of the role that cholesterol plays in coronary heart disease and ways to decrease its deleterious effects. A series of recommendations has been developed with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of people with high cholesterol levels by 10 percent, which should reduce the mortality due to coronary heart disease by over 20 percent per year. The first recommendation suggests that Americans limit the amount of fat that they consume each day to less than 30 percent of their total calories, and that cholesterol be limited to 300 mg or less per day. The panel goes on to recommend that Americans should purchase and prepare foods that are low in saturated fats and cholesterol. The public should recognize that high cholesterol, like smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and inactivity, is one of the risk factors for coronary heart disease that can be modified. Healthy children should follow the same recommendations as those suggested for adults. Health professionals should advise their patients about healthy eating patterns. The food industry should increase the availability of tasty foods that are lower in saturated fats and cholesterol, and should improve their labelling practices to enable the public to make healthy choices. The mass media and the government should become involved in the effort to educate the public about the dangers of a diet high in saturated fats and cholesterol. Screening programs to identify patients with high blood cholesterol can be useful, provided they are conducted properly, with attention to standards. Finally, research should continue on the relationship between food and health, and these recommendations should be reconsidered periodically to ensure their accuracy and timeliness. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Archives of Internal Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0003-9926
Year: 1991
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The relationship between sex hormones and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in healthy adult men
Article Abstract:
Men have a higher risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) than women, even when differences in lipoproteins (cholesterol and other substances in the blood), smoking, and exercise are taken into account. Because of this, it was suggested that levels of the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen may play a role in CHD. Females have higher levels of estrogen, but several studies have shown that men who had heart attacks had higher levels of estrogen than those men who did not. Also, giving estrogen to men increases mortality from CHD. Studies of testosterone have not produced consistent results, with some studies suggesting that higher levels of testosterone may be associated with a lower risk of CHD. It may be that sex hormones act on lipoprotein levels, possibly by altering levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol; higher HDL levels are believed to lower the risk of CHD. Some studies have shown that high plasma testosterone levels occurred with high HDL levels, but other studies have found the opposite, or no relationship at all. It does seem that testosterone is strongly associated with the decreased HDL levels in men when compared with women, but estrogen may influence the diversity of HDL levels among men. Similarly, some studies have suggested that higher levels of estrogen were related to higher levels of HDL, some studies found the opposite, and some showed no relationship at all. Perhaps differences in experimental design caused the wide discrepancies in results. In this study of 55 healthy men involved in an ongoing study of CHD risk factors, there were significant correlations between higher levels of HDL cholesterol and greater amounts of exercise, alcohol consumption, age, and total cholesterol level. This study suggests that sex hormone levels do not affect HDL levels in healthy men. The cause of the differences in risk of CHD between men and women is still a mystery. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Archives of Internal Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0003-9926
Year: 1990
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