Kochi Prefecture is noted for its high mortality rate attributable to degenerative diseases. Among them, cardiovascular disease takes the heaviest toll of lives.
In quest of risk factors associated with the scourge, we probed into its possible relations with lipid in the blood, specifically with total serum cholesterol levels. At the same time, we took note of nutritional aspects.
Our study found that the cardiovascular death rate has a negative correlation to total serum cholesterol levels and that the subjects who scored low total cholesterol values were exceedingly ill-fed as compared with ordinary people.
This finding suggests that, in Kochi Prefecture, the lowering of total serum cholesterol levels triggered off by unbalanced nutritional conditions may increase the chance of succumbing to car-diovascular disease.