HIV/AIDS News & Information

Coronary heart disease is the single largest killer of American adults. Stroke, considered separately from other cardiovascular diseases, is the third leading cause of death in this country, behind heart diseases and cancer. For coronary heart disease and stroke, incidence and death rates are both significantly higher in African Americans than in other ethnic groups for women and for men. Hypertension, which is also highly more prevalent among African Americans, is a primary risk factor for each of these conditions. Based on the blood pressure reductions observed in the first DASH trial, it was estimated that population-wide adoption of the DASH diet could reduce coronary heart disease and stroke incidence by 15% and 27% respectively.

Support for these potential improvements comes from the findings of Kant et al. in their prospective study of the relationship between diet quality and mortality. They classified the dietary patterns of more than 42,000 women on the basis of intake levels of recommended foods, including fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains, and lean meats. Comparing the highest intake levels with the lowest, they found that in the high quality diet group, coronary heart disease risk was 30% lower, stroke risk was 40% lower, and all-cause mortality was 30% lower. In a cohort study of older men (50-70 yr.)> dietary pattern meeting current recommendations was associated with 13% lower all-cause mortality than a low quality diet, and the authors concluded that “the dietary pattern as a whole is more important than specific dietary components with respect to survival among older people.”
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INSULIN RESISTANCE SYNDROME

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recently reported that the preva­lence of insulin resistance syndrome (IRS), also known as metabolic syndrome or syndrome X, has risen more than 60% in the past 10 years, and now afflicts as many as one in every three Americans. IRS includes hypertension, abnormal glucose homeostasis, obesity, and dyslipidemia, all of which are contributing factors for type 2 diabetes and CVD. In their report on the effect of dairy intake on IRS, Pereira and colleagues speculate that the marked increase in the prevalence of this combination of conditions may explain, at least in part, why CVD rates have stopped declining in recent years.

In addition to its favorable effects on individual conditions, adequate dairy intake has been shown to similarly and simultaneously influence those coexisting in IRS. Mennen et al. assessed the dietary intakes of nearly 5000 women and men to determine whether specific foods are associated with this syndrome. They found that in men, though not women, who regularly consumed dairy products (>1 serving/day) or bread (>50 g/day), there was a 40% lower prevalence of the metabolic syndrome than in those who did not. In a recently published population-based study designed to specifically examine associations between dairy food intake and IRS incidence, a strong inverse association between these factors among overweight adults was observed. canadian antibiotics

The prospective Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study examined the independent effects of dairy product consumption on the development of IRS in more than 3000 black and white men and women between 18 and 30 years of age. CARDIA found that dairy intake was inversely related to the incidence of all of the components of IRS among overweight participants (BMI >25 kg/m²), but not among their leaner counterparts. In the former, the incidence of IRS decreased by more than 50% from the lowest category of dairy intake (<10 times/week) to the highest category (>35 times/week). Adjusted odds of developing IRS were more than 70% lower in those in highest category of dairy consumption compared to those in the lowest. The association between dairy intake and IRS incidence was similar for African Americans and whites, and for men and women. CARDIA findings clearly link inadequate dairy intake to this constellation of risk factors known to dramatically increase cardiovascular disease risk.