Discussion Board

Hi Jeff. I was reading the article on China posted on "the Lounge", and was surprised to read that the Chinese now have strokes at a rate 5x greater than the US. I can cerainly understand their increases in cancer due to their extreme pollution, but stroke? Any thoughts? I would have thought that they had many years of healthiier eating under their belt, as compared to North Americans

although they do many things right, they do have an extremely high salt intake, several times higher than in the USA.

In Health
Jeff

True and true!!

In Health
Jeff

thanks! when I posted that question I totally forgot about the cause and effect of smoking and arterial disease!

Is higher salt a reason for high strokes in China? Do we know their salt consumption when they had lower heart diease/strokes etc?

In China

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/conte ... 26/12/2222

The geographic pattern of stroke and hypertension in the PRC is consistent with the "salt hypothesis," which proposes that high salt intake increases both the risk of hypertension as well as stroke. Several epidemiological studies have documented that dietary salt intake is higher in the north of the PRC than in the south.17 18 19 Tibet has the highest dietary intake of salt in the PRC, over 30 g (513 mmol sodium) per day per person, primarily in the form of salt-flavored tea.20 Tibetans also have the highest prevalence of hypertension, stroke incidence, and stroke mortality. In their study, Sasaki and colleagues21 found a positive ecological relationship between stroke mortality and mean 24-hour urinary excretion of sodium in 17 countries. In the WHO Cardiovascular Diseases and Alimentary Comparison Study, a multicenter epidemiological study conducted in 55 centers in 24 countries, stroke mortality was significantly and positively related to 24-hour sodium excretion in men across the centers.22

17 Huang ZD, Wu XG, Stamler J, Rao XX, Tao SC, Friedewald WT, Liao YL, Tsai RS, Stamler R, He HM, Zhou BF, Taylor J, Li YH, Xiao ZK, Williams OD, Chen RC, Zhang HG. A north-south comparison of blood pressure and factors related to blood pressure in the People's Republic of China: a report from PRC-USA collaborative study of cardiovascular epidemiology. J Hypertens. 1994;12:1103-1112.

18 Liu LS, Xie JX, Fang WQ. Urinary cations and blood pressure: a collaborative study of 16 districts in China. J Hypertens. 1988;6(suppl 4):S587-S590.

19 Tao SQ, Huang ZD, Lu CQ. Timed overnight urinary sodium, potassium and blood pressure in middle-aged men and women in urban rural populations in north and south China [in Chinese]. Chin J Cardiol. 1986;14:4-7.

20 Sun S. Epidemiology of hypertension on the Tibetan plateau. Hum Biol. 1986;58:507-515.

21 Sasaki S, Zhang XH, Kesteloot H. Dietary sodium, potassium, saturated fat, alcohol, and stroke mortality. Stroke. 1995;26:783-789.

22 Yamori Y, Nara Y, Mizushima S, Sawamura M, Horie R. Nutritional factors for stroke and major cardiovascular disease: international epidemiological comparison of dietary prevention. Health Rep. 1994;6:22-27.


Also, See figure 1

http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/con ... 93/8/557-a

And

http://www.physorg.com/news88337784.html

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/ol ... 03668.html


In Japan also..

J Epidemiol Community Health. 1983 March; 37(1): 43–46.
Salt and geographical mortality of gastric cancer and stroke in Japan.

"Mortality rates of stroke were strongly correlated with salt intake in 12 regions (r = 0.85, p less than 0.001)"


Stroke 2004, vol. 35, no7, pp. 1543-1547

In men, the highest compared with the lowest tertile of sodium intake was significantly positively associated with death from total stroke after controlling for covariates (hazard ratio [HR]), 2.33; 95% CI, 1.23 to 4.45). Significantly positive associations were also observed between sodium intake and death from ischemic stroke (HR, 3.22; 95% CI, 1.22 to 8.53) as well as death from intracerebral hemorrhage (HR, 3.85; 95% CI, 1.16 to 12.7).

Conclusions-These prospective data support the hypothesis that dietary salt increases the risk of death from stroke.

In Health
Jeff

Salt flavored tea??

Yeah - that was my reaction, too......bleh!

The Chinese eat a considerable portion of their calories from cooking fat. Whenever I go to China (usually a couple of times annually), I have to remember that the veggies I get (never a problem although the Chinese are quite perplexed that someone from the U.S. would not eat tons of meat, fish, chicken, pork) will be heavily fattened by cooking technique. They NEVER would simply steam something when they could fry it. Doesn't have to be deep-fat fried but it will be cooked in oil.

Cynthia

In the China Study, Dr Campbell found the average fat intake to be 14.5% of calories, which included some rural areas that were much lower and some urban areas that were higher.

This is inline with many other studies that have looked at fat intake in China.

However, in the urban areas, this is changing and has been changing for some time as they become westernized.

(The changing trend of dietary fat intake of Chinese population - an eight provinces case study in China. Personal Authors: Wang HuiJun, Zhai FengYing, Du ShuFa, Ge KeYou, Popkin, B. M. Acta Nutrimenta Sinica, 2003 (Vol. 25) (No. 3) 230-234)

Abstract:

The changing trends in dietary fat and fatty acid intakes of the Chinese population aged 18-65 years old were investigated. The data were collected in 1991, 1993 and 1997 from the China Health and Nutrition Survey in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the USA. The results showed that in 1991-97, dietary fats, mean percentage of energy from total fat and cholesterol intake increased in people who live in urban areas, suburban areas and towns. The consumption of food from animal sources, especially meat, and vegetable oil increased. This was the main cause of the increase in dietary fat intake. The mean percentage of energy from saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids increased. The fatty acid intake of people who live in rural areas did not change.


Even in areas where they still consumed a low fat diet (12%) salt, was related to high BP, which is related to stroke.

(Am J Hypertens (2000) 13, 263A–264A; Blood pressure in a low fat intake Chinese population sample)

In the Chinese Centenarians, fat intake was also low.

In Health
Jeff

What I've read is that Tibetan tea doesn't just contain salt but butter! Yeah, Imagine how that tastes! I like mine plain thank you.

I try to keep my sodium intake under 1,500 milligrams a day.