The role of dietary polyunsaturated fats in heart disease and atherosclerosis

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, August-Sept, 2003 by Wayne Martin

Anderson took note that the brothers in Ireland had very little in diet of the polyunsaturated fats to be oxidized but then oxygenation was prevented by the tocopherols in oatmeal which was a standard breakfast in Ireland.

Uganda Has Minimal Deaths from Myocardial Infarct

In the January 1950 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology was a report by Dr. Robert O'Neal et al. on the freedom from death from myocardial infarction among the black population in Uganda. In this study, hearts after death were examined both in Uganda and in St. Louis, Missouri USA. There were no infarctions found in the Ugandan sample. In the St. Louis sample, nearly a third of the sample, both blacks and whites had been found to have died of myocardial infarction.

The black population in Uganda were living on a vegetarian diet of whole grain corn, millet and barley. These people were only getting about 10 grams a day of the GOOD polyunsaturated fats as compared to about 40 grams of the polyunsaturated fats in the Prudent Diet. This study showed that it is possible to be completely free from death from myocardial infarction.

Dr. S.L. Malhotra was Chief Medical Officer for the Western Railway System in India. He had a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in the May 3, 1967 issue. He had two populations along his railway. In the North near Udaipur was a population that had more butter fat as ghee in diet than any population in the world. As compared to this population was one in the South in and around Madras. This population in the South were strict vegetarians who lived mostly on white rice. They had in diet almost no saturated fats.

The population in the North had seven times as much fat in diet as the one in the South. These North Indians were having very few heart attacks. The population in the South was living on something very close to the Prudent Diet yet they were having seven times the death rate from myocardial infarction as were the big butter fat eaters of the North.

It is of interest to note that the population in the North were very big eaters of onion and garlic. The oils of onion and garlic are fibrinolytic. They will dissolve blood clots,

The good fortune of the population of the North of India did not last too long. In The Lancet for November 14, 1987 was a report by Dr. Birari Raheja of the Jaslok Hospital in Bombay, India. He says that deaths from heart attacks has taken a sharp increase in parts of India as the low cost vegetable oils, the polyunsaturated fats, have nearly priced ghee out of the market. In this case he had noted an increase in deaths from myocardial infarction as the vegetable oils, the polyunsaturated fats, replaced ghee (butter fat) in diet.

Hard and Soft Water Role in Death from Heart Attack

There is another cause of myocardium infarction. I had a long exchange with Dr. Henry Schroeder of Dartmouth Medical College. He had done a study of areas of the US with hard and soft water. He had found that areas of the nation with soft water were having more deaths from myocardial infarction. He settled on two cities, Lincoln, Nebraska and Savannah, Georgia. Lincoln had very hard water with a hardness of 200 ppm. Savannah had very soft water with a hardness of 50 ppm. Savannah was having twice the death rate from myocardial infarction as was Lincoln.