Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990 TAG: 9005160255
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WELLSBURG, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
"When we started this, everyone called us `Fat City,"' program director Bill Reger said Tuesday. "Now, we're being recognized as one of the most fit towns in the country."
The results of the $3.3 million lifestyle modification study, scheduled to end next month, have been encouraging, Reger said.
Twice as many participants exercise regularly compared to when the study began in May 1988. And, Reger said, nearly all of the 1,000 participants, out of the town's roughly 4,000 people, have reduced their intake of fat, salt and cholesterol.
Participants' blood pressures, cholesterol levels, weight and other cardiovascular risk factors were checked every three months during the two-year study.
Tests earlier this year found more than half of the participants had lowered their average cholesterol readings by 15 points, from 221.3 to 206.3. A reading below 200 is desirable, according to the American Heart Association.
Their average weight dropped from 169.4 pounds to 166.4 pounds. They also reduced their blood pressure by an average 5 points and lowered their resting pulse rates by four beats per minute.
All of those values either remained about the same or decreased in the study's final health screening in late April, according to Reger. Results of those tests are to be released June 9.
Reger said the most substantial improvement has been in the cholesterol readings, especially in the reduction of LDL cholesterol, the bad kind.
"I think it reflects the fact that most people have changed their diet to one centered on vegetables, fruits, beans, peas and lentils," said Reger. "Two years ago, people we're saying there's no way I'm going to eat that stuff, it tastes like cardboard.
"But now, they've found the can give their food even more flavor by staying away from salt, fats, oils and other things they used to use."
"There's no more red meat as far as I'm concerned," said Mary Jo Kull, 68, whose cholesterol plummetted from a worrisome 266 to 177. "I eat fruits, vegetables, pastas, brown rice. I even bake my own bread so I can control the amount of fat and fiber.
"I put jelly or applesauce on bread instead of margarine."
The program's impact can even be seen in the town's restaurants, where steamed vegetables, fruit plates and oat bran bagels have replaced mashed potatoes and gravy, ice cream and doughnuts as favorites.
"Now they want dry toast, or a dry bagel or muffin," said Vicki Mercer, 51, a waitress at Stella's Goodie House.
"But what really gets me is they'll order deep-fried fish or chicken and pick off the breading or I'll have to blot all the grease off with a napkin," she said.
Grocers, too, have been affected.
"Cheese and beef sales have taken a drastic hit, but I can't keep my oat bran cereals and whole wheat pasta on the shelf," said Bill Konkle, a butcher and grocer.
The pilot program, one of the first privately funded efforts to develop a public health education program for rural areas, was sponsored by the Bayer Co. and Glenbrook Laboratories, the aspirin-maker's New York-based parent.
Organizers said they chose Wellsburg, on the Ohio River in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle about 45 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, because of its small population. Also, West Virginia registered the nation's highest obesity rate at 24 percent in a 1986 federal study, which also found 31 percent of West Virginians smoke cigarettes.
"The first thing I did was quit smoking," said state tax appraiser Eugene Camilletti, who had a cholesterol reading of 300 and was taking medication for high blood pressure at the start of the program.
"Then I cut out fats, oils, dairy products and red meat," he said. "Today, my cholesterol is below 200 and my blood pressure is normal, without medication."
The program also prescribed exercise and stress management techniques as ways to reduce major risk factors for heart attacks and strokes.
by CNB