Day 256 - 04 Jun 96 - Page 17

     
     1        if you will, mitigate their complex.
     2
     3        So, most science, unfortunately, in this field has been how
     4        highly reductionist and without proper interpretation of
     5        how these things work together.  So, the China study was
     6        actually organised with that in mind, to try to get a
     7        better feel for how things do work together, how they
     8        correlate with each other, how they add up their effects on
     9        these various and sundry diseases.
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:  I will continue to read:
    12
    13        "The optimum lifetime blood cholesterol concentration may
    14        be as low as 100-125 mg" -- what is "dL"?
    15        A.  Decilitre.
    16
    17   Q.  ".....(compared to an average of concentration of about
    18        210 mg/dL in the US."
    19
    20        That is comparing China to the US?
         A.  Right.
    22
    23   Q.  "The same dietary factors which increase blood cholesterol
    24        concentrations among Americans (at the much higher ranges)
    25        also increase cholesterol at the lower concentrations of
    26        the Chinese.  These include, for example, increased intakes
    27        of dietary fat and animal protein and decreased intakes of
    28        dietary fibre and legumes.  Moreover, the lower the blood
    29        cholesterol, the lower the risk for various cancers; there
    30        is no evidence of a cholesterol threshold below which
    31        further decreases in disease would not occur.  These two
    32        facts are quite remarkable, in that they suggest that
    33        almost any consumption of animal-based foods (higher in
    34        fat, lower in fibre) may increase blood cholesterol (among
    35        many other biochemical changes) from a very low level, this
    36        to be followed by a significant increase in the prevalence
    37        of the degenerative diseases (many other analyses of these
    38        same data for individual diet-disease relationships support
    39        this interpretation)."
    40
         If I just ask you a question.  You talk about the
    42        relationship between cholesterol and various cancers, and
    43        the risk increases as the blood cholesterol rises.
    44        Regarding cancer and heart disease, what kind of
    45        relationship is that increased risk; is it linear, is it
    46        slight, what is the -----
    47        A.  Our evidence suggests that it is linear; and that was
    48        another exciting part of the China Project, that in Western
    49        studies -- and most studies, in fact, have really been done
    50        amongst Western subjects -- were generally working with 
    51        people whose cholesterol levels ranged between about 160 to 
    52        170 or so milligrams per decilitre, up to about 300 and 
    53        320, in that range.  So we see a linear relationship
    54        between cholesterol level and disease prevalence for these
    55        different diseases.
    56
    57        In China, in contrast, the range of their cholesterol was
    58        between about 90 milligrams per decilitre for an average in
    59        one county, up to a high of 170 milligrams per decilitre
    60        average for another county.  So, we are talking about 90 up