Clinical Reports The Influence of Nutrition and Ways of Life on Blood Cholesterol and the Prevalence of Hypertension and Coronary Heart Disease Among Trappist and Benedictine Monks

T lIE etiology of atherosclerosis and its concomitant diseases of the heart, brain and kidneys is still unknown despite the ever-increasing amount of research which is being devoted to its elucidation. Many recent reports contain surveys of the present status of our knowledge, ’- ‘ but it is the consensus of niost investigators that none of the theories advanced have been conclusively proved. Among the exogenous factors that seem to play a role in the pathogenesis of these diseases, two groups of factors have received most at-tention: Many observations seem to suggest that certain diets, which tend to raise the blood cholesterol level, promote the production of atherosclerosis (especially of intima atheronia) both in man and in the experimental animal. In addition, a number of physicians maintain, on the basis of clinical observations, that cer-tam psychosocial interhuman stress situations, which seem to be connected with the ways o