Publisher's Comments
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What makes this book different from other books?
The Surgeon General's report identifies the type of fat that people eat as one of the most significant factors in health and disease. However, the US Surgeon General's report states that EFA deficiencies are rarely reported in the United States (1).
In the 1970s, Dr. Hugh Sinclair and Dr. Peter Ahrens proposed that Essential Fatty Acid deficiency (EFAD) was a major cause of CAD. However, there wasn't much evidence of EFAD in people with CAD.
Given the high prevalence of CAD in the US, if CAD really was associated with EFAD, biochemical evidence of EFAD should be widespread in the general population. Unfortunately, researchers were not able to find evidence of EFAD in the general population, except for a few rare patients with severe malabsorption of fats. As a result, the hypothesis linking essential fats to heart disease became discredited and forgotten.
Dr. Siguel's research links older hypotheses with modern technology to explain what causes heart disease, hypertension, loss of brain function, and many other common conditions. This book presents the results of Dr. Siguel's own research. Some of the findings are discussed here for the first time in application to the way people eat. The research is based on humans.
You probably recognize that many scientific studies tell you one thing today, another thing tomorrow. One researcher says that vitamin E or beta-carotene is good for you and prevents cancer. Another finds that it increases cancer or causes more deaths from stroke. It is very difficult, even for scientists, to make sense of the huge amount of data. To compound the problem, most people write about what others write who wrote what others told them. Few have the time to read the original articles.
Siguel's book is based on his own findings and his experience studying thousands of research subjects and patients. It is based on his personal conversations with leading physicians and researchers around the world, and his reading of original research articles.
What the Publisher
says:
Dr. Siguel's education qualifies him to interpret data. He has a Ph.D. with emphasis on measurement theory and statistics. He has received some of the highest awards from the federal government and participated in most public health committees that deal with health statistics.
Dr. Siguel has developed methods to evaluate Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). At one time, he was in charge of evaluating HMOs for the federal government, and prepared estimates of costs and benefits to be derived from developing HMOs in the USA. These reports were submitted to the US Congress as the official estimates for evaluation of health care reform proposals.
The book contains new material based on Dr. Siguel's research findings, including:
A new method
to measure deficiencies of Essential Fats (EFs). Using this patented method to
analyze blood samples from the Framingham Heart Study and hundreds of patients,
Dr. Siguel found that more than 25% of the adult US population has w6
deficiencies, and more than 50% has w3 deficiencies, reversing currently held
beliefs that these conditions were rare (Siguel EN, Maclure, M. Relative Enzyme
Activity of Unsaturated Fatty Acid Metabolic Pathways in Humans. Metabolism,
36: 664-669, 1987).
How
Essential Fats are the key missing link between nutrition and heart disease
(Siguel E, Lerman, RH. Fatty Acid Patterns in Patients with Angiographically
Documented CAD. Metabolism 1994; 43:982-993.) Contrary to then
prevailing views, Siguel's research found that avoiding fat and replacing the
calories with carbohydrates would not prevent heart disease. Instead,
reducing caloric intake and eating a proper balance of Essential Fats was the
key to preventing heart disease. His findings were validated by many studies,
including a Harvard report. (Hu et al. Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk
of CHD in Women. NEJM 1997, 337(21): 1491-9).
Why EFs are
the most likely nutritional factor that affects TC/HDLC, and how people can
optimize their diet to reduce their risk for heart disease (Siguel, E. A New
Relationship between PUFAs and TC/HDLC. Lipids, 1996; 31, S51-S56).
How
Essential Fat abnormalities contribute to the complications of Crohn's disease,
Ulcerative Colitis, Cystic Fibrosis, and other chronic intestinal diseases
(Siguel E, Lerman, RH. Fatty Acid Patterns in Patients with Chronic Intestinal
Disease. Metabolism. 1996; 45(1):12-23); using nutritional supplements
to correct these conditions.
The role of
Essential Fats, vegetarian diets, and antioxidants in breast and prostate
cancer. Siguel provides a biochemical explanation of how vegetarian diets can
treat cancer, and gives new approaches using EFs to reduce cancer cell
reproduction (making cancer cells more unstable through modification of
membrane fluidity) (Siguel EN. Cancerostatic Effect of Vegetable Diets. Nutrition
and Cancer, 4:285-289, 1983).
New
diagnostic and treatment methods for diabetes.
How low-fat
diets can cause EF abnormalities and lead to premature heart disease,
behavioral and learning difficulties, and many other problems (Siguel E, Lerman
RH. The Effects of Low-Fat Diet on Lipid Levels. JAMA, 1996; 275:759.
Siguel E, Lerman RH, MacBeath, B. Very Low-Fat Diets for CHD: Perhaps, But
Which One? JAMA, 1996:275: 1402-1403. Siguel, E. Dietary Fat: How Low
Can or Should You Go? Symposium, AOCS Annual Meeting, 1997).
The role of
functional foods in preventing and treating disease (Siguel, E. Issues and
Problems in the Design of Foods Rich in EFAs. Lipid Technology,
8(4):81-86, 1996).
Optimized
drug and nutrition therapies for people who have abnormal lipids and increased
risk of premature death due to cardiovascular disease.
References
(1). The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health. US Department of Health and Human Services, PHS publication No. 88-50210, 1988.
(2). Sinclair, H. Dietary fats and coronary heart disease. Controversy. Lancet, 1980; i:414:415 (and earlier articles herein cited).
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© 1998 Edward N. Siguel. All rights reserved |
modified 9/17/98 |