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The effect of coronary heart disease prevention on the prevention of non-cardiovascular diseases

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Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

At the preceding Bologna meeting, evidence was presented that measures to prevent coronary heart disease (CHD) are likely to provide protection against some of the other, major chronic diseases as well [1]. Of the latter, the most important is cancer in its different manifestations. During the last few years, a high level of consensus has been reached that CHD is, indeed, preventable through risk factor control and that both a population and a high-risk strategy are needed to make prevention optimally effective on the population level [2–6]. However, there is still opposition to these recommendations, even though they become more and more accepted by the scientific and medical community.The most serious of these objections is the allegation that the reduction in CHD risk resulting from lowering one of the three main risk factors, serum cholesterol, would be counterbalanced by an increase in cancer risk, leaving total mortality unchanged [7]. It is the present purpose to show that these concerns are unfounded, based on a comprehensive review of available data, bearing both on cancer and total mortality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zürich, Sumatrastrasse 30, CH 8006, Zürich, Switzerland

    F. H. Epstein

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  1. F. H. Epstein
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Clinica Medica Generale e Terapia Medica I, Policlinico S. Orsola, via Massarenti, 9, Bologna, 40138, Italy

    Giancarlo Descovich , Antonio Gaddi , Gianluigi Magri  & Sergio Lenzi , ,  & 

  2. Department of Gerontology and Atherosclerosis Centre, University of Bologna, via Massarenti 9, Bologna, 40138, Italy

    Giancarlo Descovich  & Antonio Gaddi  & 

  3. Department of Geriatrics and Lipid Clinic, University of Bologna, Bologna, 40138, Italy

    Gianluigi Magri

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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Epstein, F.H. (1990). The effect of coronary heart disease prevention on the prevention of non-cardiovascular diseases. In: Descovich, G., Gaddi, A., Magri, G., Lenzi, S. (eds) Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Disease. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0731-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0731-7_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6814-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-0731-7

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