**Adventist Health Studies Overview:**
– Adventist Health Studies (AHS) focus on lifestyle, diet, disease, and mortality links in Seventh-day Adventists.
– Lower risk of certain diseases in Seventh-day Adventists is attributed to their dietary and lifestyle habits.
– The studies have garnered significant national media coverage, including features on ABC News and National Geographic.
**Adventist Mortality Study:**
– Initiated in 1960 with 22,940 California Adventists.
– Adventist men lived 6.2 years longer than non-Adventist men.
– Lower death rates among Adventists noted in various cancers and heart disease.
– Advantages in lung, colorectal, breast cancers, and heart disease for both men and women.
– Statistical comparisons were conducted using life table analyses.
**Adventist Health Study 1 (AHS-1):**
– Conducted from 1974 to 1988 with 34,000 Californian Adventists.
– Findings linked diet to cancer and coronary heart disease.
– Adventist men and women lived longer than other Californians.
– Specific health behaviors were found to increase lifespan by up to 10 years.
– Dietary changes, such as consuming legumes and nuts, showed protective effects.
**Adventist Health Study 2 (AHS-2):**
– Launched in 2002 with the goal of including 125,000 Adventists in the US and Canada.
– Led by Dr. Gary Fraser from Loma Linda University.
– Findings suggest that vegetarian diets offer protection against obesity and type 2 diabetes.
– An association was found between dairy food intake and prostate cancer risk.
– The study is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
**Key Figures and Sub-studies:**
– Loma Linda University Adventist Health Studies were archived in 2008.
– Dr. Gary E. Fraser is a prominent researcher associated with the Adventist Health Studies.
– Notable figures in the health field like David L. Katz and Michael Klaper are involved in the research.
– Susan M. Levin is recognized in the health and wellness community for her contributions.
Adventist Health Studies (AHS) is a series of long-term medical research projects of Loma Linda University with the intent to measure the link between lifestyle, diet, disease and mortality of Seventh-day Adventists.
Seventh-day Adventists have a lower risk than other Americans of certain diseases, and many researchers hypothesize that this is due to dietary and other lifestyle habits. This provides a special opportunity to answer scientific questions about how diet and other health habits affect the risk of suffering from many chronic diseases.
Two studies on Adventist health involving 24,000 and 34,000 Californian Adventists were conducted over the last 40 years. Although not sponsored by the Adventist church itself, the church is supportive of the studies. These studies have been the subject of significant national media coverage on programs such as ABC News: World News Tonight, Good Morning America and in the National Geographic feature article "Longevity: The Secrets of a Long Life".
There is a third larger ongoing study that includes Adventists throughout the United States and Canada.