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Value Added Life
promotes health through its nutritional supplements that are made according to
the high quality standards prescribed by the South African Medicines Control
Council. Its advertisements strive to inform people about healthy living and
through sponsoring university research it improves our knowledge of indigenous
medicinal plants.
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Prochol is a Western Herbal medication that assists in maintaining normal cholesterol levels. Its active ingredients are policosanol and beta-sitosterol. Some research conducted with these ingredients is listed below.
Policosanol:
In 1984, a study demonstrated that sugar cane wax could lower lipid in
rats and mice. Later, another study demonstrated that octacosanol (a
policosanol) could lower triglyceride and cholesterol contents in the
liver.
Fukuda, Effect of sugar cane wax on serum liver lipids on rats;
Chemical Abstracts, 106, 17, 137413p and Sho H. et al, Effects of
Okinawan sugar cane wax and fatty alcohols on serum and liver lipids in
the rates, J. Nutri. Vitaminol 30 (6) 553-559.
Sho H, Chinen I, Fukuda N. Effects of Okinawan sugar cane wax and fatty
alcohol on serum and liver lipids in the rat. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol
(Tokyo). 1984 Dec;30(6):553-9.
Shimura S. et al, Studies on the effect of octacosanol on the motor endurance in mice; Nutrition Reports Int. 198736, 1029-1038.
In 1994, Cuban researchers reported that policosanol inhibited the
cholesterol synthesis at early steps of cholesterol biosynthetic
pathway in a study of human lung fibroblasts. They also found that
policosanol lowered the total cholesterol mainly through a decrease in
LDL-C levels in a study of rabbits. They filed the first patent on the
policosanol composition.
Mixture of higher primary aliphatic alcohols, its obtention from sugar
cane wax and its pharmaceutical uses, patent# 5663156. Patent # 5856316
Arruzazabala ML et al, Cholesterol-lowering effects of policosanol in rabbits. Biol Res. 1994;27(3-4):205-8.
In 1996, the Cuban researchers reported that oral administration of
policosanol could inhibit hepatic cholesterol biosynthesis in rats. In
1998, a group filed a patent on a composition containing policosanol to
reduce serum cholesterol levels.
Composition for reducing serum cholesterol levels, Patents # 5952393 and 6197832.
Policosanol reduces cholesterol levels in patients suffered from type II hypercholesterolaemia.
Pons P et al, Effects of successive dose increases of policosanol on
the lipid profile of patients with type II hypercholesterolaemia and
tolerability to treatment. Int J Clin Pharmacol Res. 1994;14(1):27-33.
Beta-sitosterol:
Cholesterol lowering:
The McGill University patients on a fixed diet were given sterols from
pine oil for a mere ten days in a strict, randomized crossover study.
They successfully lowered both their total cholesterol and LDL levels
in this short term placebo controlled experiment. They concluded, these
results demonstrate the short term efficacy of pine oil plant sterols
as cholesterol lowering agents"
Jones PJ, Howell T, MacDougall DE, Feng JY, Parsons W Short-term
administration of tall oil phytosterols improves plasma lipid profiles
in subjects with different cholesterol levels. Metabolism - Clinical
Experimental 47, 1998, p. 751-6. [Abstract]
A study done at the Center for Human Nutrition in France in healthy
people with normal cholesterol levels were given beta- sitosterol to
see if their normal levels could be lowered even further. The healthy
people lowered their normal cholesterol levels even more with no change
in diet or exercise with a full 10% lower in only a month. They said,
"The present results may be of great interest in the prevention of high
cholesterol diet-associated risks, especially in the prevention of
cardiovascular diseases. They concluded, "These findings suggest that a
significant lowering of plasma total and LDL cholesterol can be
effected by a modest dietary intake of soybean phytosterols"
Pelletier X, Belbraouet S, Mirabel D, Mordret F, Perrin JL, Pages X,
Debry G. A diet moderately enriched in phytosterols lowers plasma
cholesterol concentrations in normocholesterolemic humans. Ann Nutr
Metab. 1995;39(5):291-5. [Abstract]
At Uppsala University in Sweden the doctors wanted to give the
volunteers the phytosterols in conjunction with a cholesterol lowering
diet to see the results of a more comprehensive lifestyle program. The
results were really impressive in that the men and women lowered total
cholesterol a full 15% and LDL cholesterol a full 19% in less than a
month. This shows the very dramatic results you can get with just
adding some reasonable dietary changes even without any exercise
program at all.
Eur. Heart J. Supp. 1, 1999, p. S80-S90
At the University of British Columbia at St. Paul's Hospital a review
was done complete with 86 references of using plant sterols to lower
total cholesterol and LDL. They said of the recent research, " In 16
recently published human studies that used phytosterols to decrease
plasma cholesterol levels in a total of 590 subjects, phytosterol
therapy was accompanied by an average 10% decrease in total cholesterol
and 13% decrease in LDL cholesterol levels."
Moghadasian MH, Frohlich JJ. Effects of dietary phytosterols on
cholesterol metabolism and atherosclerosis: clinical and experimental
evidence. Am J Med. 1999 Dec;107(6):588-94. Review. [Abstract]
At the University of Kagawa in Tokyo two studies were done. The first
was done on healthy young men who were given plant sterols for only
five days. In this short time their cholesterol levels fell measurably.
The second study was done on healthy young women again giving them
plant sterols for only five days. "Administration of phytosterol
(mainly sitosterol) increased the output of fecal cholesterol." These
were all healthy young Japanese people eating a traditional low-fat
diet who did not have a cholesterol problem to begin with, yet they
received measurable results in only five days.
Joshi Eiyo Daigaku Kiyo 14, 1983, p. 165-72
Joshi Eiyo Daigaku Kiyo 15, 1984 p. 11-18
At the University of California in San Diego men were isolated in a
hospital ward and fed 350 mg of cholesterol and then beta-sitosterol
supplements . This resulted in a 42% decrease in cholesterol absorption
in the intestines. They said, "Evidently, the judicious addition of
beta-sitosterol to meals containing cholesterol rich foods will result
in a decrease in cholesterol absorption with a consequent decrease in
plasma cholesterol"
Mattson FH, Grundy SM, Crouse JR. Optimizing the effect of plant
sterols on cholesterol absorption in man. Am J Clin Nutr. 1982
Apr;35(4):697-700.
Hypercholesterolemia:
The University of Helsinki took a big interest in lowering cholesterol
with plant sterol therapy back in 1988. The first study studied
familial (genetic) hypercholesteremia. The higher the sterol levels
they found in the patients blood the more cholesterol was excreted
rather than absorbed.
Clinical Chimica Acta 178, p. 41-9
The second study was in 1989 . Men were studied again for blood levels
of sterols and they found the higher the levels the more cholesterol
was excreted successfully.
Miettinen TA,Tilvis RS,Kesäniemi YA Serum cholestanol and plant sterol
levels in relation to cholesterol metabolism in middle-aged men.
MetabolismFeb 1989 (Vol. 38, Issue 2, Pages 136-40) [Abstract]
The third study in 1994 studied vegetarians who eat twice as many plant
sterols as normal people. They showed one reason vegetarians have lower
cholesterol levels besides the food they eat is the efficiency of their
cholesterol excretion due to their intakes of plant sterols.
Dwyer JT. Vegetarian eating patterns: science, values, and food
choices--where do we go from here? Am J Clin Nutr. 1994 May;59(5
Suppl):1255S-1262S. Review.
In the last study in 1999 they said, "Plant sterols may be useful for
the treatment of hyper-cholesterolemia may have a potent cholesterol
lowering effect as shown in normal and hypercholesteremic men and women
with and without coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus"
Miettinen, Tatu A.; Gylling, Helena Regulation of cholesterol
metabolism by dietary plant sterols. Current Opinion in Lipidology.
10(1):9-14, February 1999. [Abstract]
A review from the University of British Columbia . included a full 86
references, and went over seventeen different human studies using plant
sterols to lower cholesterol since 1951 (Proceedings of the Society for
Biological Medicine 78, 1951, p. 143-7).
A total of 590 men and women were used in these studies with
phytosterol therapy resulting in an average 10% reduction in total
cholesterol and a 13% reduction in LDL cholesterol. They found this
worked best in high-fat diets; the worse the diet the more results the
researchers got.
Moghadasian MH, Frohlich JJ. Effects of dietary phytosterols on
cholesterol metabolism and atherosclerosis: clinical and experimental
evidence. Am J Med. 1999 Dec;107(6):588-94. Review. [Abstract]
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