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Background: The Seven Countries Study has shown that population mortality rates for various chronic diseases are related to diet and smoking. This paper addresses the associations between diet, smoking and 25-year all-cause mortality., Methods: Baseline surveys were carried out between 1958 and 1964 on 12,763 middle-aged men constituting 16 cohorts in seven countries. In 1987/88 equivalent food composites representing the average food intake of each cohort at baseline were collected and chemically analysed in one central laboratory. During 25 years of follow-up 5973 men died and age-adjusted population mortality rates were calculated for each cohort., Results: Multivariate linear regression analyses showed that the population intake of saturated fat and the prevalence of smoking were positively associated with population all-cause mortality rates. Population vitamin C intake was inversely associated with all-cause mortality. It was calculated that a reduction in saturated fat intake of 5% of energy, a 20 mg/d increase in vitamin C and a 10% decrease in the prevalence of smokers may decrease the 25-year all-cause population mortality rate by 12.4% (95% CI: 5.6, 19.4%) at an average population all-cause mortality rate of 45%., Conclusion: At the population level saturated fat, vitamin C and cigarette smoking are important determinants of all-cause mortality.

Evidence has shown that both C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid component A (SAA) are increased in individuals with gastritis and stomach cancer. Controlling the level of these biomarkers by inhibiting the gastric infection with high doses of ascorbic acid may reduce the risk of carcinogenesis. A population-based double-blind randomised controlled trial in a Japanese population with atrophic gastritis in an area of high stomach cancer incidence was conducted between 1995 and 2000. Daily doses of 50 or 500 mg vitamin C were given, and 120 and 124 participants completed the 5-year study, respectively. Although serum ascorbic acid was higher in the high-dosage group (1·73 (sd 0·46) μg/l) than in the low-dosage group (1·49 (sd 0·29) μg/l, P< 0·001), at the end of the study, no significant difference was observed for CRP between the low- and high-dosage groups (0·39 (95 % CI 0·04, 4·19) mg/l and 0·38 (95 % CI 0·03, 4·31) mg/l, respectively; P= 0·63) or for SAA between the low- and high-dosage groups (3·94 (95 % CI 1·04, 14·84) μg/ml and 3·85 (95 % CI 0·99, 14·92) μg/ml, respectively; P= 0·61). Vitamin C supplementation may not have a strong effect on reducing infections in individuals with atrophic gastritis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]