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Egg yolk consumption and carotid plaque. [Atherosclerosis. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI

Mmmmmm eggs!

Eggs will kill you!!!!!
Friday, August 17, 2012

As a UK resident: Thank god it's not London, London but London, Ontario. Phew. Thought the goons in epidemiology at Imperial College had been at it again. Happily the shame for this has to go to Canada. Oh dear, sorry Canada.

Peter

10 comments:

David Johnston said...
It seems that the interwebs is getting better at jumping on these badly designed studies with bad analysis. You're is the fifth (and shortest) article I've found disassembling this study since yesterday. Chris Masterjohn's was the most detailed.
karl said...
Here is the link: http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cmasterjohn/2012/08/16/does-eating-egg-yolks-increase-arterial-plaque/#comment-3804 This is a correlative study – thus it could easily be a shared association to something else that is eaten at the same time – toast with jam(high carbs),bacon – etc. Or other habits of egg eaters ( they smoke more ). People were told for years to avoid eggs for good health – I think it is likely that the same people that avoided eggs were also avoiding other things and exercising, quitting smoking etc.. These were also patients that had suffered TSAs – I would expect this group to have more people with e3/e3 gene types – and they might well have trouble no matter what the source of saturated fats came from. The conclusion of the paper shows that the authors do not understand what science is – correlations do not show cause and effect - yet they make the claim of causation. Another example of cargo cult science.

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Egg yolk consumption and carotid plaque. [Atherosclerosis. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI
Atherosclerosis. 2012 Oct;224(2):469-73. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2012.07.032. Epub 2012 Aug 1.

Egg yolk consumption and carotid plaque.

Source

Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre, Robarts Research Institute, 1400 Western Road, London, ON N6G 2V2, Canada. dspence@robarts.ca

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Increasingly the potential harm from high cholesterol intake, and specifically from egg yolks, is considered insignificant. We therefore assessed total plaque area (TPA) in patients attending Canadian vascular prevention clinics to determine if the atherosclerosis burden, as a marker of arterial damage, was related to egg intake. To provide perspective on the magnitude of the effect, we also analysed the effect of smoking (pack-years).

METHODS:

Consecutive patients attending vascular prevention clinics at University Hospital had baseline measurement of TPA by duplex ultrasound, and filled out questionnaires regarding their lifestyle and medications, including pack-years of smoking, and the number of egg yolks consumed per week times the number of years consumed (egg-yolk years).

RESULTS:

Data were available in 1262 patients; mean (SD) age was 61.5 (14.8) years; 47% were women. Carotid plaque area increased linearly with age after age 40, but increased exponentially with pack-years of smoking and with egg-yolk years. Plaque area in patients consuming <2 eggs per week (n = 388) was 125 ± 129 mm(2), versus 132 ± 142 mm(2) in those consuming 3 or more eggs per week (n = 603); (p < 0.0001 after adjustment for age). In multiple regression, egg-yolk years remained significant after adjusting for coronary risk factors.

INTERPRETATION:

Our findings suggest that regular consumption of egg yolk should be avoided by persons at risk of cardiovascular disease. This hypothesis should be tested in a prospective study with more detailed information about diet, and other possible confounders such as exercise and waist circumference.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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