[Macroangiopathy compared between native Japanese and Japanese-Americans: findings from the Hawaii-Los Angels-Hiroshima Study]

Abstract

We have conducted medical surveys of Japanese-Americans, in whom westernization of life style occurred earlier and more intensively, in order to clarify the impact of westernization of life style on diseases in Japanese. This survey is started in Hawaii in 1970, and Los Angeles in 1978. We clarified that the prevalence of obesity, which leads to insulin resistance, is higher in Japanese-Americans than that in Japanese, and that insulin resistance which is associated with diabetes, hypertention, and dyslipidemia could increase macroangiopathy such as ischemic heart disease and stroke in Japanese-Americans. The mortality rate of Japanese-Americans with diabetes from ischemic heart disease increased to be similar extent to that of Caucasian in the U.S. It could be concluded that Japanese-Americans are at high risk for macroangiopathy.