Diet & the Heart

Each year, 160,000 U.S. men die from coronary-artery disease before the age of 70. Many doctors have suspected for some time that a good number of them could prolong their lives by changing their eating habits--but proving the proposition was another matter. One reason: nobody knew whether it was possible to persuade a sufficient number of men leading normal lives to go on a low-fat diet and stick to it. At last week's A.M.A. meeting, the Executive Committee on Diet and Heart Disease reported after a long-term pilot project involving 2,000 men aged 45 to 54 that it was indeed possible. The next step, said the committee, is to seek more conclusive proof by enlisting up to 100,000 men aged 40-59 in a new, $50 million study.

For two years, most of the men in the pilot study lived on diets that either were low in fat, or substituted polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats wherever possible. Most started out overweight and with high blood-cholesterol levels. By adhering to the diets, despite the inconveniences and deprivations involved, most lost weight and reduced their cholesterol levels. Many also cut down on their smoking or quit altogether. Only half as many suffered heart attacks as among nondieting men of the same age.

But, said the committee, the numbers involved were too small for a firm conclusion that the diets alone were really protective. In addition, too many other factors were involved--among them economic status and the change in smoking habits. Urging the National Heart Institute to set up a far bigger study, the committee suggested that at least 40,000 men in their 40s and 50s who have high cholesterol levels but no evidence of heart disease be placed on special diets. At the same time, an equal number of men with similar characteristics would serve as "controls" by continuing to eat as they please. Even if the Heart Institute acted immediately on the recommendation, however, no decisive results could be expected until 1975 at the earliest.

Ironically, the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Irvine H. Page, 66, (TIME cover, Oct. 31, 1955), who served as chairman of the Diet-Heart Committee, was unable to present its report to the A.M.A. convention. Though he has kept slim, exercised often and followed his own low-fat regimen for years, he was recovering, in Cleveland Clinic Hospital, from a mild heart attack.

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