Nutrition Bytes

Coronary heart disease (CHD) continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States today. As research continues to implicate increased levels of serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) as a major cause of CHD, many therapies have been designed to specifically lower LDL-C, in hopes of preventing CHD. In 2001, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III) recommended that first line therapy for primary prevention of CHD should involve dietary and behavioral modifications, otherwise referred to as therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC). In order to evaluate both primary and secondary prevention strategies, currently available options are described below, including dietary modifications, pharmacotherapy, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) therapies. Finally, critical evaluation of recent studies provides further support for the guidelines established by the NCEP ATP III, which strongly recommends therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) as first-line therapy for primary prevention of CHD.