Nutritional Status of the Aging

Abstract

The serum cholesterol levels of 530 supposedly normal persons, 234 men and 296 women, 50 to more than 80 years of age living in their own homes were found to vary from 106 to 720 mg per 100 ml blood, the means for the men being 241 ± 8 and for the women, 270 ± 8. The free cholesterol was 27 to 28% of the total and this proportion did not vary significantly in any group. The mean level for 43 additional men over 60 years of age, living in the county home, was 209 ± 12. The women had significantly higher levels than the men between the ages of 60 and 80 years. In both sexes a sharp drop in the levels occurred at 75 or 80 years. There was a downward trend in the levels of the men with each decade but a sustained high level was shown by the women in the groups from 60 to 75 years of age after a sharp drop in the 54- to 59-year group. This drop may be due to a post-menopausal spurt in steroid hormone production. A positive correlation of the order of 0.12 was found between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol levels in both men and women and a similar correlation, 0.15 in men, 0.09 in women, between fat intake and serum cholesterol levels. When intake of fat of animal origin only was considered the correlation was lower. A slight positive correlation with protein intake was also found and this was thought to stem from the similar dietary occurrence of fat, cholesterol and protein. A striking parallelism was noted between the serum ascorbic acid and serum cholesterol levels in women but not in men. A possible relationship between these blood constituents and steroid hormone manufacture and circulation is suggested. Extreme under- or overweight, 20% or more, in men but not in women, was found to be associated with low and high serum cholesterol levels respectively as well as with low and high intakes of fat and cholesterol. No such relationship was seen in the groups with smaller deviations from the normal weight. No relationship between blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels was found in any of the groups. It is clear that standards for hypercholesteremia must be different for men and women and that dietary fat and cholesterol are associated positively with the serum cholesterol levels.