Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial

From the 361,000 evaluated they chose 12,000, half for a control group and half for multiple interventions. The trial was led by Jerry Stamler, friend and colleague of Ancel Keys. He wrote; "There may not be an explicit formulation of the [diet - heart] "hypothesis", in Ancel Keys or my multiple publications, the reason being – I am quite sure – that it was superfluous, since we were already standing on the shoulders of those whose initial work made the hypothesis self-evident."

Dr Jeremiah (Jerry) Stamler

There were four interventions in this trial.

Stop Smoking

Take Blood Pressure Medication if needed

Eat a Low Cholesterol Diet

Eat a Low Fat diet.

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The men in the intervention group died at a higher rate than those in the control group. The trial was stopped. This FAILURE was embarrassing and the result was set aside, because it wasn't understandable.

1997 Follow up

Smoking

21 % of the intervention group had stopped smoking but they still had higher rates of lung cancer than the control group.

Cancer Rates and Cholesterol

The intervention group did have lower rates of total cholesterol.

However cancer rates were higher, especially colon cancer.

The also had more gallstones and in Japan, more strokes.