London, Feb 12 (IANS): A high-cholesterol diet and eating eggs will not increase risk of heart attack, not even in persons inclined genetically, reveals a new study.

Relatively higher intake of dietary cholesterol, or eating an egg every day, are not associated with an elevated risk of incident coronary heart disease or with the thickening of the common carotid artery walls, the study said.

Frequent consumption of eggs does not increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases even in persons who are genetically predisposed to a greater effect of dietary cholesterol on serum cholesterol levels, the research showed.

Furthermore, no association was found among those with the APOE4 phenotype, which affects cholesterol metabolism, the findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed.

The dietary habits of 1,032 men aged between 42 and 60 years and with no baseline diagnosis of a cardiovascular disease were assessed at the onset the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, KIHD, in 1984-1989 at the University of Eastern Finland.

During a follow-up of 21 years, 230 men had a heart attack, and 32.5 percent of the study participants were carriers of APOE4.

In the highest control group, the study participants had an average daily dietary cholesterol intake of 520 mg and they consumed an average of one egg per day.