From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Fri May 23 2003 - 19:57:46 MDT
gts wrote,
> What are the actual numbers for the two diets? How different are the means
> for total cholesterol?
>
> The abstract states:
>
> "After three months, no significant differences were found between the
> groups in total or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. The
> [good] increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations and
> the [good] decrease in triglyceride concentrations were greater among
> subjects on the low-carbohydrate [Atkins] diet than among those on the
> conventional diet throughout most of the study."
>
> This looks good for Atkins after 3 months. Do they give HDL and
> LDL numbers
> after one year? Thanks.
I cut-and-paste this raw data. There should be no typos. Some of the
numbers look strange, and it is not clear why the text says what it says.
It seems that they may be looking only at the end-of-year results. The
numbers don't obviously support one diet over the other. It seems to be a
mixed bag for both diets.
Triglycerides go way down, way up and then back way down on Atkins, while
almost doing the reverse on the conventional diet. Atkins looks better at 3
months, then conventional diets look better at 6 months, then it reverses
yet again.
On cholesterol, Adkins definitely improved HDL, but worsened total and LDL
some. The conventional diet improved all three some.
Here are the results given in "Table 2. Percent Changes in Weight, Blood
Pressure, Serum Lipoprotein Concentrations, and Oral Glucose Tolerance in an
Analysis in Which Base-Line Values Were Carried Forward in the Case of
Missing Data.*"
"*" character after the table title is an asterisk footnote symbol
"?" character after "P Value " is a double-dagger footnote symbol
"?" character after values is double-dagger footnote symbol
"?" character after "Insulin sensitivity" is a section footnote symbol
"?" character within values is plus/minus symbol
Low-
Carbohydrate Conventional
Diet Diet
Variable (N=33) (N=30) P Value ?
-------- ------------ ------------ ---------
Weight
Mo 3 -6.8 ?5.0 ? -2.7 ?3.7 ? 0.001
Mo 6 -7.0 ?6.5 ? -3.2 ?5.6 ? 0.02
Mo 12 -4.4 ?6.7 ? -2.5 ?6.3 ? 0.26
Systolic blood pressure
Mo 3 -2.6 ?11.2 -0.6 ?11.9 0.59
Mo 6 -2.3 ?11.7 1.0 ?12.2 0.28
Mo 12 -1.0 ?9.4 1.7 ?11.8 0.43
Diastolic blood pressure
Mo 3 -3.0 ?13.4 -3.5 ?10.3 ? 0.84
Mo 6 -4.0 ?12.7 ? -2.9 ?14.2 0.84
Mo 12 -3.7 ?12.4 ? -3.8 ?13.2 0.84
Triglycerides
Mo 3 -18.7 ?25.7 ? 1.1 ?34.6 0.01
Mo 6 15.0 ?29.4 ? -7.6 ?19.3 ? 0.13
Mo 12 -17.0 ?23.0 ? 0.7 ?37.7 0.04
Total cholesterol
Mo 3 1.7 ?15.0 -5.4 ?10.1 ? 0.03
Mo 6 2.4 ?9.3 -2.4 ?9.5 0.06
Mo 12 0.1 ?9.8 -2.9 ?8.0 0.27
Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol
Mo 3 5.4 ?19.2 -7.4 ?16.6 ? 0.007
Mo 6 2.7 ?12.8 -1.5 ?15.8 0.34
Mo 12 0.31 ?16.6 -3.1 ?12.0 0.52
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol
Mo 3 9.6 ?19.1 ? 1.4 ?16.1 0.04
Mo 6 14.7 ?20.5 ? 2.5 ?12.0 0.007
Mo 12 11.0 ?19.4 ? 1.6 ?11.1 0.04
Area under the glucose curve
Mo 3 6.7 ?20.7 1.6 ?16.6 0.27
Mo 6 1.0 ?15.9 -0.8 ?12.2 0.80
Mo 12 3.2 ?16.2 1.2 ?10.1 0.80
Area under the insulin curve
Mo 3 -14.1 ?27.6 ? -11.2 ?40.5 ? 0.48
Mo 6 -14.7 ?25.7 ? -5.1 ?35.8 0.19
Mo 12 -11.2 ?24.7 ? -8.2 ?28.4 ? 0.60
Insulin sensitivity ?
Mo 3 6.7 ?11.6 ? 4.1 ?10.7 0.37
Mo 6 5.8 ?12.0 ? 5.2 ?10.3 ? 0.79
Mo 12 2.9 ?9.5 2.9 ?9.5 0.92
*Plus -minus values are means ?SD.
?P values are for the differences between the two groups.
?P<0.05 for the difference from base line within the group.
?Insulin sensitivity was calculated according to the quantitative
insulin-sensitivity check index.16
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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