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 New Book Chronicles Adventist Health, Updated Health Survey in Progress
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| BY
ANN |
Results from four decades of Seventh-day Adventist health studies have
now been compiled in one reference, and are available from the largest
university press in the world.
"Diet, Life Expectancy, and Chronic Disease: The Health Studies of
Seventh-day Adventists and Other Vegetarians," was released last week
by Oxford University Press, a unit of Oxford University.
The book is being released as thousands of Adventists are participating
in a new health study even more extensive than those mentioned in the
book.
Dr. Gary E. Fraser, the author and a professor of medicine at Loma
Linda University's School of Medicine and a professor of epidemiology
at the university's school of public health, says the book is based on
two studies of Adventists in California in 1960 and 1976.
"We've been asked time and time again for results of [these] health
studies," says Fraser. "That's really what the book is for."
He says it was a challenge compiling all the previously published
information since health study results have appeared in some 320
publications in peer-reviewed journals for more than 40 years.
Having grown up Adventist and saying "no" to meat on many occasions,
Fraser says it was natural for him to explore the evidence for a
vegetarian health advantage when he had the opportunity.
Many Adventists are vegetarian by choice and most abstain from alcohol
and tobacco.
"If it did turn out that there were a large number of very long-lived
healthy Adventists, and if our lifestyle really made that kind of
difference, we seriously needed to tell this to others in a convincing
way," says Fraser.
"In an age of science with the expectation of empirical evidence, the
collection and publication of strong peer-reviewed scientific results
from studies such as the Adventist Health Study is necessary to
persuade people and change official recommendations," he says.
The early studies were informative but did not involve enough people in
examining different cancers extensively, says Fraser. He hopes the
book's release generates even more support for the current Adventist
health study being funded by an $18 million grant from the National
Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States government. The
new study, begun in 2002 and sponsored by Loma Linda School of Public
Health, aims to examine health habits among 125,000 Adventists,
including 45,000 black Adventists, whose males have twice the rate of
prostate cancer as do Caucasians, says Fraser.
The reason for this disparity in prostate cancer rates is "totally
unclear," he says. Yet this question is one of the largest-ever health
studies examining questions about the health of blacks in America, and
is one of the reasons Loma Linda was awarded the NIH grant.
Another reason for the NIH grant, according to Fraser, was to
investigate a possible link between consuming soy products and a low
overall rate of prostate and breast cancers among Adventists. No other
measurable group in the United States has a soy consumption rate as
high as Adventists.
Adventists typically are healthier than the general population, the
book shows. Of Adventists studied in California, rates of heart attacks
were half and cancer was 30 percent less than the general population.
But why are Adventists healthier? It's hard to know for sure, says
Fraser, yet some general patterns have been discovered and are
discussed in the new book. Past studies have suggested that meat was a
factor in coronary heart disease while nuts and whole grains were
protective against it.
For life expectancy, nut consumption, being vegetarian, and absence of
excess weight were three factors that made a difference of about two
years of life each.
For cancer, fruit consumption was a preventative factor; some cancers,
such as colon and bladder, were linked to meat consumption. Legumes
helped protect against some cancers, while potatoes are said to help
prevent ovarian cancer.
Fraser says the new study will more thoroughly examine meat consumption
and effective calcium intake. There is a debate in the medical
community whether calcium may be a protective of some cancers but a
cause of others. Fraser says the issue is "very controversial."
Although there is a range of dietary habits among Adventists, church
members are more uniform in areas such as not smoking, as well as very
little alcohol consumption. But there is more variance in the area of
meat consumption, Fraser says.
A major motivation of the new study is to capture the wide range of
dietary habits. Fraser says the study is strengthened by a "huge
variability in Adventists." He reports that half of the Adventist
churches involved in the study have already been visited.
"The time that this book comes out is very appropriate," says DeWitt
Williams, health ministries director for the Adventist Church in North
America. "It shows that being a vegetarian makes a big difference on
quality and length of life.
"We all [Adventists] have the same spiritual background. The only thing
different is their diet," says Williams. "When you add as much as 12
years of active life, that's significant."
A special effort is being made to recruit black Adventists to
participate in the study, according to Dr. Patti Herring, co-director
of the Adventist Health study. Two people in each predominantly black
church are being trained to encourage other members to complete the
study.
"If blacks participate, there's a lot in it for them," says Herring.
"Overall, our health is much more inferior and our life expectancy is
much less. We have a lot to gain from this study."
For more information on the current health study visit
www.adventisthealthstudy.org. |
Email: info@sdasingles.net
Date: 7/16/2003 |
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