Hyper-/Dyslipoproteinämien: Nahrung und mediterrane Lebensweise als Therapie

Hyper-/Dyslipidaemia: Nutrition and Mediterranean Life Style as Therapy? The incidence of cardiovascular disease, the main cause of death and morbidity in developed countries, is closely related to diet and lifestyle. Distinct eating patterns reflect different dietary traditions worldwide, and they may be related to rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) in different countries. Mediterranean people have a very low rate of CHD compared with Western populations. For half a century the relation between dietary fat and CHD, the “diet-heart”-hypothesis, has been a central tenet of strategies for risk reduction in individuals and populations. We, therefore, performed a review to assess the impact of dietary intervention. The complex process of cardiovascular disease remains to be one of the main tasks for health committees. The aetiology begins with endothelial dysfunction caused by dyslipidaemia, insulin resistence, diabetes, free radical generation, hypertension and high levels of homocystein. Although there exist several new insights in the pharmacological therapy, nutrition remains to be the main therapeutic approach. Epidemiological studies and food analyses show new approaches for “nutrition as (part of) therapy”. The treatment of dyslipidaemia sets different targets. Primarily it is the reduction of LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and the rising of HDL-cholesterol. The nonpharmacological treatment consists of lowering the intake of saturated fats to lower plasma LDL-cholesterol; the regulation of body weight, enhanced physical activity and cessation of smoking to rise plasma HDL-cholesterol; weight reduction, enhanced physical activity and less alcohol to lower plasma triglycerides. J Kardiol 2003; 10: 434–9. Hyper-/Dyslipoproteinamien: Nahrung und mediterrane Lebensweise als Therapie S. J. Wallner, T. C. Wascher