These studies have begun to bring heart failure out of the dark room of ignorance and into the light. Since 1950, the death rate from heart disease( Heart Attack) has fallen by two-thirds in countries such as the United States.
In the early 1940s, a startling statistic caught the attention of Ansel Keyes, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.
People in America and other Western countries, especially wealthy businessmen, were suffering from heart attacks at high rates.
The reason for this was not clear.
Keyes, who was doing important research on obesity and undernutrition, decided to start a study investigating the causes of heart attacks.
Until then, all of medical science was largely ignorant of the causes of heart attacks.
There was a superficial understanding that heart attack was a disease of old age.
Therefore, there was no clarity on what could be done for its prevention and resolution.
There were early speculations that cholesterol may play an important role in heart attacks, but solid scientific evidence for such speculations was negligible.
Symptoms and causes of Heart Attack:
So in 1948, Keyes began an investigation into the matter.
The research, named the Minnesota Business and Professional Men’s Study, lasted 15 years.
The results of the first phase of this research, published in 1963, showed that high cholesterol, high blood pressure and overweight were closely related to heart attacks.
Other studies also showed similar results.
After President Franklin Roosevelt died of uncontrolled blood pressure in 1945, the US government passed the law and launched an ambitious study.
The initial results of the study, named ‘Framingham Heart Study’, revealed similar facts in the early sixties.
Yes, many people with heart attacks have high blood cholesterol levels.
But there was no convincing scientific evidence that high cholesterol causes heart attacks.
At the same time, studies began to be published showing that many people with heart attacks had cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels of the heart.
Since then, the argument that high cholesterol has a negative role in heart disease has grown stronger.
This argument was later named the ‘cholesterol hypothesis’.
But even this new knowledge about cholesterol was not of practical benefit to heart attack patients and potential patients.
Because it was not clear whether reducing the amount of cholesterol in the blood would reduce the risk of heart attack or not, nor was it clear what the amount of cholesterol in the blood would be when reducing cholesterol in food (cholesterol is an essential element for the body and the liver also makes it). Keyes’ other research also answered these questions.
In one study on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, healthy men were given the same diet for several months, but the number of eggs high in cholesterol was varied.
There was no significant difference in blood cholesterol levels regardless of eating more or less eggs.
Other studies have yielded similar results.
There was no significant difference in the amount of cholesterol in the blood regardless of eating more or less cholesterol.
But adding fat (fat and cholesterol are not the same) along with cholesterol to the food showed a significant increase in blood cholesterol.
Subsequent research looked at the relationship between different types of foods high in dietary fat and cholesterol.
From those studies, it was confirmed that in most cases, meat fat (especially red meat) increases blood cholesterol, while in some cases, vegetable fat helps to reduce cholesterol.
“Saturated fat” will be more in red meat. Plant-based fatty foods such as olive oil and walnuts will contain unsaturated fats.
After that, the understanding that the amount of cholesterol in the blood will increase due to ‘saturated fat’ has deepened.
The evidence about the relationship between food and cholesterol levels in the blood was collected in this way, but a long study was needed to be clear about whether reducing the cholesterol levels in the blood reduces the risk of heart attack or not.
That evidence came from two important studies.
The ‘Framingham Heart Study’ started in 1948 and the ‘Seven Countries Study’ started by Ansel Keyes in 1958 as a special initiative of the American government.
The advances made by medicine in the 20th century regarding heart disease and its treatment are unprecedented and unimaginable.
These two studies mentioned above have perhaps the greatest role in this progress and development of understanding.
The health status and lifestyle of the participants or their children in these studies, which began in the 1950s, have been monitored in some way to this day.
Based on these and other similar studies, such as longitudinal cohort studies, we have discovered what causes heart attacks.
We have learned that high cholesterol, high blood pressure, being overweight, smoking are the ‘classic’ risk factors for heart attack.
And we know that minimizing these risks can significantly reduce the risk of heart attack.
As early as the 1950s, researchers discovered that heart attack rates differed greatly from country to country.
Countries like Japan and Greece had very low rates, while countries like Finland had high rates.
It was also found that there is a huge difference in the food commonly consumed in these countries.
That is why it was necessary to study whether or not food makes a difference in the risk of heart attack.
To find answers to these questions, Keyes launched the ‘Seven Countries Study’ in seven countries at once.
The results of the first phase of this study conducted in America, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Japan, Finland and then Yugoslavia were published in 1966.
The results of a study on food were published in 1970.
The study, which monitored the health status, diet and lifestyle of the participants for a decade, was hypothesized to show a link between fatty foods and heart attacks, but the results were not exactly the same.
There was no significant difference in the rate of heart attack when the proportion of fat in the food was varied.
But when looking at the type of fat, it was found that when the ratio of “saturated fat” is high, the rate of heart attack also increases.
After this fact, the understanding that ‘saturated fat’ causes heart attacks took root.
In fact, the Seven Counties (and Framingham) results, while showing a relationship, did not prove that saturated fat causes heart attacks, nor did Keyes say so.
But from the superficial understanding that heart attack is a disease of aging, it is from these studies that a deeper understanding of its causes and risk, the relationship between heart attack and food began.
Based on this understanding, methods of preventing and resolving heart attacks have been formulated.
These studies have begun to bring heart failure out of the dark room of ignorance and into the light.
Since the 1950s, the death rate from heart disease has fallen by two-thirds in countries like the US, and learnings from these studies have played a huge role.
Subsequent research has deepened our understanding of fat, cholesterol, and heart disease.
According to today’s understanding, ‘saturated fat’ is not considered as bad as it once was.
Nor is our understanding of cholesterol as straightforward and simple as it once was.
Thus, what was initially learned from studies such as the Seven Counties and Framingham continues to be modified and refined.
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This Article was translated form of an Article by : onlinekhabar.com
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