More People in Rural Areas Suffer High Cholesterol Level — Survey

Rich people in rural areas have tended to suffer from high cholesterol level more than those living in the urban areas, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI).

Dr. Imelda Angeles-Agdeppa, citing DOST-FNRI survey in 2013, said about 27.3 percent cholesterol level incidence was recorded in rural settings compared with the 24.1 percent in the urban settings.

“The most that are actually suffering (from high cholesterol level among the richest) is actually coming from the rural areas as compared to the urban areas,” Dr. Agdeppa said during the 56th celebration of PATACSI (Philippine Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons) held at the Crowne Plaza Galleria in Ortigas.

Agdeppa said that the possible reason for that was because urban areas have access to different information from the media and to other forms of communication compared to those in the rural settings.

She said that it was possible that an interplay of other factors could be attributed to such increase despite the fact that in rural setting, people have more access to simpler foods in their tables such as vegetables and fishes.

“People in the rural areas actually take, kahit more of vegetables, they are fond of “ginisa” adding more fat in the diet just to make food more “palatable”.

She added that frying of “fishes” contributed also to the increased in the intake of cholesterol in the body.

“These are the common practice that we observed when we go and had our household survey because we do observation also in the houses,” she explained.

Based also from the said observation, it was found that the intake of meat was more than 30 grams.

The study also found that women were prone to high cholesterol level than men because of their lifestyle and the kind of activities that they were doing, because it is men who usually do rigorous jobs.

In the said study about 51 percent of women have high cholesterol levels compared to men at almost 42 percent.

She added that the study also showed that as the age increases, the cholesterol level also increases.

“The rising prevalence of high total cholesterol today is alarming…We need to make people more aware of the situation and do something about it,” she said.

She warned that having high cholesterol levels means being subject to greater risk of heart disease and other illnesses.

Experts also link high levels of cholesterol to the top non-communicable disease (NCD) killers in the Philippines, which include diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cardiovascular diseases.

She said that there was a need to switch to healthier lifestyle.

Del Monte Philippines and PATACSI Foundation said that they had partnered in bringing in to the consumer a product that was actually proven to help lower “cholesterol”.

Through their product– Heart Smart 100 percent Pineapple Juice and Orange Juice Drink with (Reducol) ingredient, they want every Filipinos wanting to control their cholesterol levels be aware that through healthy lifestyles and drinking of the said drink they can contribute a lot to lowering of cholesterol level in the body.

In the said event, David Peele, president of AVOCA Inc. and makers of Reducol, assured that Reducol was US-FDA approved and taking Del Monte Heart Smart in daily basis may help reduce cholesterol levels in 8 weeks.

He said that the ingredient, which is fortified in the said product, was clinically proven to be safe and no adverse effects and containing plant sterols and stanols. (PNA) RMA/LSJ