HEALTH BEAT Lowering Cholesterol

Diet and exercise has become a mantra for health-conscious consumer According to a new study, the word and is a particularly important part of the mix. Stanford University researchers fix that people who followed a low-fat eating plan on the other hand did not exercise did not significantly bring their cholesterol levels compared to those who the one and the other dieted and exercised.

The investigators followed 197 men (average age 48) and 180 women (average age 57) for a year. The participants were considered at risk for heart disease because they all had elevated horizontals of harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and a certain number of had low levels of beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol The women s average LDL level was 161 mg/dl and HDL was 47 mg/dl The men s LDL levels averaged 156 mg/dl and 36 mg/dl for HDL (LDL below 130 mg/dl and HDL above 45 mg/dl are considered desirable.) The offers followed one of four regimens: individual hour of aerobic exercise three times a week plus the National Cholesterol Education Program s (NCEP) Step II diet (les than 30% of daily calories from fat; 7% of total calories may be saturated), exercise alone, the NCEP diet alone, or a continuation of their normal habits (the sway group).

After a year, single those who followed the diet and exercise program had significant decreases in LDL cholesterol (There were no substantial changes in any of the participants HDL levels) the couple the men s and women s LDL levels in the diet and exercise collection decreased by an average of 18 mg/dl Those who followed either the NCEP diet or workout regimen alone experienced sole slight reductions in LDL cholesterol compared to the command group, whose levels remained unchanged. The bottom line is: diet and exercise. (New England Journal of Medicine July 2, 1998, pp. 12 20)

COPYRIGHT 1998 Copyright through President and Fellows of Harvard society All Rights Reserved

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group