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Biomedical subjects

T Dwyer

Publications and source records attributed to T Dwyer.

140 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Diet, other lifestyle factors and HDL cholesterol in a population of Australian male service recruits.

The association between dietary and other factors and plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentration was examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a sample (n = 530) of Australian male service recruits (mean age 21 years) involved in a nine-week induction training program. The findings suggest that diet may make an independent contribution to HDL cholesterol, equal in importance to alcohol, smoking, fitness and obesity--previously identified as being important. Water and carbohydrate consumption showed a negative cross-sectional association with HDL cholesterol on multivariate analysis. The negative association for carbohydrates was also observed longitudinally. Less consistent associations for saturated fat and for total energy intake were also observed. When the relationship between dietary factors and the HDL cholesterol/cholesterol ratio was examined the most important dietary factor appeared to be saturated fat, which was negatively associated with this ratio. No consistent association was observed for any of the 67 individual foods examined.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Alcohol consumption and blood pressure in a group of young Australian males.

Several studies have suggested that regular consumption of alcoholic beverages is associated with hypertension. Recent studies, however, have implied tht whilst moderate or high ingestion of alcohol may be detrimental, a threshold exists for alcohol consumption below which alcohol may even exert a beneficial effect. As part of a larger study of a male, service population (average age 23 years) undergoing an initial training course of ten weeks duration, we measured both blood pressure and alcohol consumption in 350 men at entry and/or exit from the course. Alcohol intake was assessed using a supervised, self-administered dietary questionnaire which included two pre-tested measures of alcohol consumption. High alcohol consumption in these young men was not related to elevated systolic or diastolic blood pressure; neither was the recently reported lowering of blood pressure in low alcohol consumers compared to non-drinkers, apparent in this young population. The lack of relationship between alcohol consumption and blood pressure in this predominantly young group suggests that the relationship, if there is one, between these two factors only becomes clinically obvious either with longer exposure to alcohol, or in an older age group in whom the mechanism of control of blood pressure may already be somewhat compromised by other age-related physiological changes which are not readily measurable.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Sex, social status and ethnic origin in relation to coronary heart disease risk factors in Adelaide schoolchildren.

The relationship of several Coronary Heart Disease risk factors to sex, social status and ethnic background was studied in a sample of 539 grade-5 students (10-year-olds) in eight volunteer primary schools in Adelaide. The risk factors examined were: obesity (sum of four skinfolds); blood pressure; fitness (physical work capacity (PWC) 170/kg); and plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, and high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Social status differences were negligible for all risk factors. However, differences between the sexes, and between ethnic groups, were marked, particularly in relation to fitness and obesity. Girls carried significantly more body fat than boys, although their height and weight were similar; they were less fit. Their plasma lipid levels and blood pressure, on the other hand, were very similar to those for boys. Values for children whose parents were born in Australia and the United Kingdom were similar for all risk factors. However, children of both sexes whose parents were born in Italy and Greece were fatter and less fit.U

Australia↗
PubMed1980

A comparison of trends of coronary heart disease mortality in Australia, USA and England and Wales with reference to three major risk factors-hypertension, cigarette smoking and diet.

A comparison has been made of the recent changes in coronary heart disease mortality in Australia, the USA, and in the United Kingdom (England and Wales). Sharp declines in mortality dating from 1966 in Australia and from 1968 in the USA in both sexes contrast with a persistent increase in men in England and Wales until 1972 (after which a sight fall occurred) and a consistent slight fall in women since 1950. An investigation has been made of changes in 3 major risk factors-hypertension, cigarette smoking and diet in the 3 countries in an attempt to determine to what extent such changes might correlate with the different patterns of mortality. There has been a progressive and similar fall in mortality due to hypertension in both sexes in all 3 countries since 1950. There was a rise in cigarette smoking in all 3 countries from 1947 followed by a fall in the USA from 1963 and a more recent fall in men in Australia. There has been a levelling off of smoking in the United Kingdom in middle-aged and older men but not in women where smoking rates have increased from 1950 since when there has been a progressive slight fall in overall coronary heart disease mortality (although there is evidence of a recent rise in younger women.) Changes in dietary constituents (meat, eggs, milk and cheese, butter or margarine) have been examined by reference to aggregate consumption data. In Australia and the USA increases in vegetable fat consumption have occurred since 1950 with a reduction in animal fat in Australia but not in the USA. In the United Kingdom increases in vegetable fat have not been observed while there has been some increase in animal fat. It is concluded that the different patterns of coronary heart disease mortality in the 3 countries do correlate to some extent with changes in diet and cigarette smoking.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Joint planning--how a hospital and a city carried it off.

Methodist Hospital of Indiana, Inc., and the City of Indianapolis, both having a strong commitment to redevelopment, designed a long-range project in which the hospital, as the dominant permanent institution of its inner-city neighborhood, played an important part in solving the problems faced by the entire community.

City Planning↗
PubMed1978

Maternal smoking and congenital malformations: an epidemiological study.

In a case-control study undertaken in several hospitals in Connecticut, it was found that women who reported smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day during pregnancy had a relative risk of about 1.6 for congenital malformations in the offspring of that pregnancy compared with women who said they had not smoked at all during pregnancy. However, there was no significant increase in risk among women who reported smoking 20 or fewer cigarettes a day during pregnancy compared with those who said they had not smoked at all during pregnancy. The higher risk among moderate and heavy smokers could not be attributed to any of the potentially confounding variables considered in this study; furthermore, it was specific to smoking during pregnancy rather than before pregnancy, and increased with the average amount smoked a day. Nevertheless, because the increase in risk was modest, because response bias could exist in a study of this type, and because no other studies have examined in detail the smoking-congenital malformation hypothesis, further research is needed to determine whether the relationship between maternal smoking and congenital malformations in offspring is causal.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Peripheral vascular disease in cigarette smokers and impaired hepatic metabolism of lipoprotein remnants.

The metabolism of very-low-density lipoproteins and chylomicrons includes the extrahepatic hydrolysis of their triglycerides by lipoprotein lipase. This results in cholesterol-rich "remnants" which are further metabolised by the liver. There is experimental evidence that in both patients with type-III hyperlipoproteinaemia and cigarette smokers hepatic-remnant metabolism may be depressed. In type-III hyperlipoproteinaemia the defect is inherited while in smokers it occurs in response to raised blood concentrations of carboxyhaemoglobin. The striking clinical similarity between type-III hyperlipoproteinaemic patients and smokers--namely, a high incidence of peripheral vascular disease--may be due to a common cause, the accumulation of cholesterol-rich remnants in the plasma.

Arteriosclerosis↗