JOE FRANCO
PERSONAL TRAINER
Tuesday January 19, 1999 1:43 PM ET
Published in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study bolsters earlier studies linking dietary fat with gallstones, but did not find a connection between developing gallstones and dieting, coffee consumption or smoking.
``These findings suggest that a sedentary lifestyle and a diet rich in animal fats and refined sugars and poor in vegetable fats and fibers are significant risk factors for gallstone formation,'' the researchers wrote.
Approximately 1 million new cases of gallstones are diagnosed in the United States each year, and as many as 20% of the population over age 40 develop gallstones. The condition strikes women more often than men.
The researchers, who collaborated with Dr. Maurizio Trevisan of the State University of New York at Buffalo, randomly selected 1,429 men and 1,043 women from voting records in the small southern Italian town of Castellana. Led by Dr. Giovanni Misciagna, the research team tested blood samples and performed ultrasound examinations of the participants' gallbladders in 1985. They found that 226 (92 men and 134 women) of the 2,472 participants had gallstones. Six years later, the researchers reexamined 1,962 of the originally gallstone-free participants and found that 104 (55 men and 49 women) had developed gallstones. The 104 patients and 290 of those who remained gallstone-free then completed a questionnaire about their leisure and work activities and diet during the previous 12 months.
The results showed that those with gallstones were heavier, more often had diabetes, had more frequent bowel movements and consumed more sugar and saturated fats than their counterparts without gallstones. The survey also revealed that those who were physically active and consumed more monounsaturated fats were less likely to develop gallstones.
Noting that the factors associated with gallstones are the same as those associated with heart disease and cancer, the researchers conclude that, preventive strategies aimed at improving nutrition and increasing physical activity could significantly reduce the major sources of illness and death in our society.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999;69:120-126.