The Japanese Mega Study

At the last American Heart Association annual scientific meeting in Nov 2005, two Japanese starred, presenting two important clinical trials on Asians.

The MEGA trial (Management of Elevated cholesterol in the primary prevention Group of Adult Japanese) studied the effect of a good Japanese diet, with low dose pravastatin, in adult Japanese (about 8,000 adults) with no evidence of CAD (primary prevention).The followup was 5 years.. Pravastatin at 10-20mg with a good Japanese diet was effective in lowering LDL-cholesterol moderately (18%) and what was more important, the major adverse cardiac events (MACE) rate was reduced by 33% at the end of the 5 years followup

Usually we need to treat 120 adults to save one MACE. This study is important for us Asians, to know that we do not have to superlower our LDL-Cholesterol to 70mg with superpowerful statins. Moderate reduction will do. This will certainly mean less side-effects. Myalgia and liver dysfunction become much less of an issue. The Japanese diet is obviously cardiac healthy, being fresh fish based. It is something that we Malaysians should take note when we eat out. (Note: no member of this blog has any vested interest in the Japanese food industry). We will later also describe other Japanese highlight in the last AHA annual scientific meeting.