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Pharmacy Links

HEART DISEASE: THE SEVEN COUNTRIES STUDY

02nd April 2009

Around the same time, the Seven Countries Study was started by Professor Ancel Keys of Minneapolis. More than twelve thousand men from the United States, Japan, Yugoslavia, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Greece were followed over five years, and then ten years. In this study, too, the key influence on heart disease was the blood cholesterol level. Cholesterol levels (measured as the percentage of men with cholesterol levels above 250mg/dl) were lowest in Japan, Greece, and Yugoslavia, and highest in the Netherlands, the United States, and Finland. In the middle was Italy. The heart disease rates exactly mirrored that pattern.

The Seven Countries Study concluded that other factors promoting heart disease, such as smoking and high blood pressure, only come into operation if the blood cholesterol level is high. In Japan, high blood pressure is very common, and cigarette consumption is very high, yet the heart disease rate is low. Finns exercise more than nationals of other countries, yet their heart attack rate is high and linked with their very high cholesterol level.

Where did the high blood cholesterol levels come from? The Seven Countries Study showed conclusively that it was dietary. When the blood cholesterol levels in each were compared with the percentage of dietary calories derived from animal fats (containing saturated fatty acids), the Finns were far and away at the top of the graph, and the Japanese were at the opposite pole. There was a very close correlation between eating saturated fats and blood cholesterol levels in each country.