Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 05
1 other chronic problems. It has quite a number of
2 scientific references, I guess about 325.
3
4 My goal in writing all of these was to provide materials
5 that lay persons could understand, but, at the same time,
6 provide those with an interest in the scientific
7 background to be able to go through and look at the
8 original source material. I have also some scientific
9 studies that I am engaged in currently that will be
10 published a bit later on, two of which are with Dr. Dean
11 Ornish, in dietary changes, particularly in cardiovascular
12 disease predicated on material that I published with Dr.
13 Ornish.
14
15 Q. Would you elaborate about this study? Could you explain
16 it?
17 A. There are actually a couple of different studies.
18 I published a journal called the Journal of
19 Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, a study on the topic of
20 how easy or difficult is it to change the diet. It is
21 quite well known and quite well accepted that dietary
22 changes are important to prevent serious illnesses such as
23 cancer. Reducing fat intake is quite well accepted in the
24 United States as an important step; increasing fibre,
25 increasing vegetables and fruits.
26
27 The challenge that faces my profession is how to assist
28 people to do that, to make those changes, and that was the
29 subject of that study with Dr. Dean Ornish. Dean Ornish
30 is quite a well known cardiovascular researcher from the
31 University of California. He invited me to do a study on
32 the process of dietary change. As I said, that has
33 already been published. We are doing a long-term follow
34 up study, which I expect to submit for publication early
35 next year.
36
37 I am doing an additional long-term study that is part of a
38 multi-centre trial with eight clinical centres involved in
39 changing the fat and overall dietary fat content and
40 overall diet of a population and assessing its effects
41 over the long run. I am doing a study on adherence and
42 acceptance factors as well as examination of physical and
43 psychological changes in the participants.
44
45 We do not expect to have results on that for quite a
46 number of years, because it is a long-term trial with
47 probably about 600 subjects, or perhaps even more.
48
49 Q. Have you done any other practical studies?
50 A. Well, one of our concerns we had was to what extent is
51 the public aware of the links between diet and cancer. It
52 has been our concern that by and large the American
53 public, and perhaps individuals in other countries, are
54 not aware of research showing that dietary factors play an
55 important role in cancer.
56
57 We did a carefully conducted survey of American women to
58 assess whether they were aware of links, particularly
59 between dietary fat and breast cancer. The results,
60 regrettably, showed that only 20 per cent of women would
