[Changes in serum cholesterol levels in Japan].
Serum cholesterol levels in Japanese people have increased after World War II. The national surveys by Research Committee demonstrated an increase of approx. 10 mg/dl of serum cholesterol from 1960 to 1980 in every years of age. An increase of serum cholesterol is observed in Japanese, whereas a decrease in American during the 20 years. Although the Japanese cholesterol levels are much lower for the older people, those for younger group are higher than American levels. These results bring forward the problems in the incidence of ischemic heart diseases in young Japanese. It is considered that the changes in serum cholesterol levels are due to the changes in the proportion of the nutrients in the Japanese diets; energy from carbohydrates decreased, whereas ones from proteins and fats increased, with no significant changes in total calorie intake. In particular, the intakes of total and animal fats have increased more than 3.5 fold during the period. "Normal" values and ranges in laboratory medicine are generally derived as the mean +/- 2SD by the statistical method. Normal range, however, which are calculated from many laboratory data, have come into questions in case of serum cholesterol. The upper limits of the means +/- 2 SDs are often higher than the values obtained from the clinical and epidemiological findings. It has clarified that the medical cares are necessary even at lower cholesterol levels. Then, "normal" values and ranges must be decided not only by statistics, but by the clinical and epidemiological findings.
Noma
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Department of Laboratory Medicine, Gifu University School of Medicine.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values
D002784:Cholesterol