Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JACC, Lipids / 31.10.2014

Prof. Frank B Hu Department of Nutrition Department of Epidemiology Harvard School of Public HealthMedicalResearch.com Interview with Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology Harvard School of Public Health Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School Boston, MA 02115 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Hu: There has been much confusion and sensational headlines about the role of different types of fat in coronary heart disease.  A recent meta-analysis suggested that higher saturated fat intake was not associated with coronary heart disease (CHD), but people don't consume saturated fat in isolation from other components of diet. Typically people swap for one type of fat for another. Therefore it is important to look at replacement nutrient when we talk about health effects of saturated fat. Randomized clinical trials have shown that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces total and LDL cholesterol. Thus it is important to examine whether such replacement confers long-term beneficial effects on heart disease prevention. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies to summarize the evidence regarding the link between dietary intake of linoleic acid (the predominant type of polyunsaturated fat) and heart disease risk in generally healthy people. We identified 13 published and unpublished cohort studies with a total of 310,602 individuals and 12,479 total  coronary heart disease events including 5,882 CHD deaths. We found that dietary linoleic acid intake is inversely associated with  coronary heart disease risk in a dose-response manner—meaning, higher intake of linoleic acid resulted in a lower risk of CHD. Comparing the highest to the lowest level of consumption, dietary linoleic acid was associated with a 15% lower risk of  coronary heart disease events and a 21% lower risk of CHD deaths. These results were independent of common coronary heart disease risk factors such as smoking and other dietary factors such as fiber consumption. (more…)
Author Interviews, Sleep Disorders / 26.03.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with Dr. Christopher Papandreou Department of Social Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Papandreou: Certain adipose tissue fatty acids measured in the gluteal site were found to be associated with sleep quality parameters in obese patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome after controlling for possible confounders. (more…)