Incident Solar Radiation and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Rates in Europe

Overview

Journal Eur J Epidemiol

Specialty Public Health

Date 2008 Aug 16

PMID 18704704

Citations 12

Authors

Alfred Wong

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The reported low mortality rate from coronary heart disease in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and France, to a lesser extent, has been attributed in numerous nutritional studies to the consumption of a Mediterranean-type diet. There are still many unresolved issues about the direct causal effect of the Mediterranean dietary regime on low incidence of coronary heart disease. An analysis of coronary heart disease mortality rates in Europe from a latitudinal gradient perspective has shown to have a close correlation to incident solar radiation. It is surmised that the resulting increased in situ biosynthesis of Vitamin D(3) could be the critical missing confounder in the analysis of the beneficial health outcome of the Mediterranean diet.

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