Heart disease is a serious worldwide epidemic. Medical treatment may be required for intractable cases or for those at high risk. However, cholesterol-lowering interventions in 50-year-old adults, even if successful, are unlikely to make a dent on established arterial disease. They may have only a limited impact on the occurrence of adverse events related to coronary heart disease. Studies show a mere 30% decrease in death and disability from heart disease in patients treated with drugs called statins. In fact, 70% of patients may still have cardiac events while on statin therapy.
In a comprehensive review of scientific literature published in the August 5, 2008 issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation, Daniel Steinberg, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of medicine at UC San Diego, and colleagues Christopher Glass, M.D., Ph.D. and Joseph Witztum, M.D., state that a low-saturated fat, low-cholesterol diet in infancy or early childhood is the best approach to reduce the incidence of heart ailments. The essence of their research findings mandating earlier and more aggressive treatment of hypercholesterolemia relates to controlling the levels of bad cholesterol, i.e., low-density lipoproteins to under 50 mg/dl. Fatty lesions in the arteries, often in the childhood may sometimes result in advanced life-threatening lesions by the age of 30. In fact, more than 30% of heart disease could have been prevented had the effort started way back in childhood.
Early Childhood Intervention: Intake of a low-fat diet from infancy can result in lifelong low cholesterol levels. The effect can be seen regardless of other risk factors such as cigarette smoking and diabetes in adults. It is essential not to resort to drug therapy to attain the targeted LDL level of 50 mg/dl or less (in those at highest risk) in childhood. Therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) using diet and exercise may be a better option.
Key Ingredients of TLC:
- Limit daily calories derived from fatty cuts of meat, poultry with the skin, whole-milk dairy products, and lard, as well as some vegetable oils, including coconut and palm oils .
- Limit foods of animal origin, such as liver and other organ meats; egg yolks (but not the whites, which lack cholesterol); shrimp; and whole milk dairy products, including butter, cream, and cheese
- Soluble fiber—banana, peach, apple, berries, or other fruit added to oatmeal and oat bran; black, kidney, white, pinto, or other beans, or lentils added to salads help to block cholesterol and fats from being absorbed through the intestinal wall into the blood.
- Physical activity
