Predicted effects on coronary artery disease risk
Epidemiologic studies suggest that a change of 1 U in
total:HDL cholesterol is associated with a 53% change in the risk
of myocardial infarction (9). We can use this figure and the coefficients
in Table 1 to speculate about the effect of changes in fatty
acid intake on the risk of CAD. The most clear-cut test of such
speculations is provided by the clinical trials of dietary fat and
heart disease. For the Finnish Mental Hospital Trial, our coefficients
predict a decrease of 18% in the incidence of CAD in both
sexes, compared with actual decreases of 44% in men (86) and