The Amazing Way of Cholesterol Control

By M.K. Ansari, Ph.D. Friday October 14, 2011

Raised LDL (bad) cholesterol is the key factor contributing to heart and blood vessel diseases, and it is now regarded as the most reliable indicator of the risk for heart attack and stroke. Even if total cholesterol and HDL (good)cholesterol are in the desirable ranges, raised LDL- cholesterol poses a high risk for heart disease. Most people with diabetes, especially type 2, tend to have cholesterol disorder and are two to four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than the general population. However, a good control of blood cholesterol has been shown to reduce this risk by 20 to 50 percent.

Miracle Substances

Science has discovered powerful food substances that naturally and remarkably reduce unhealthy cholesterol in your blood. These substances called plant stanols/sterols help you achieve significant reduction in the risk for heart attack and stroke. To provide stanol/sterol in diet, these substances are extracted from their natural sources and mixed in various food products such as margarines spreads, milk, yogurt, cheese, orange juice, cookies, chocolates, chips, and salad dressings. Choose any of these products according to your taste buds. The products are now easily available in many food stores in the United States. Plant stanols and sterols are also available in the form of tablets and capsules as dietary supplements, but they may not fully dissolve in the digestive tract.

What are Plant Stanols /Sterols?

Simply stated, plant stanols and plant sterols are “cholesterol” found in plants just as cholesterol is found in your blood. Plant stanols and sterols occur in tiny amounts in many fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, wood pulp, and plant oils such as soybean and pine tree oils. Although plant stanols and sterols are similar to cholesterol in their structure; they have a unique feature: unlike cholesterol, they are not absorbed or absorbed poorly by your body.

How Do These Substances Work?

Plant stanols and sterols help reduce your total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol in two ways. First, these substances, working through a number of mechanisms in the digestive tract, prevent the body from absorbing cholesterol from food. Second, in the absence of cholesterol absorbed from food, the liver uses up LDL cholesterol from the blood for digestion. Both these effects contribute to lowering of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, leading to significant reduction in the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Important Facts

Here are some important facts about cholesterol-lowering power of pant stanols and sterols:

These substances lower LDL (bad) cholesterol, but do not affect HDL (good) cholesterol and triglyceride.

A daily food serving with 2 grams of plant sterol or stanol, as recommended by the National Cholesterol Education Program, lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol
up to 14 percent. Taking these substances in higher doses, however, has not been shown to achieve any extra benefit.

A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2000 reported that taking the recommended amount of these plant compounds in one single meal or spread over several meals a day has a similar cholesterol-lowering effect.

Foods with plant stanol or sterol may be added to cholesterol-lowering medicine of the statin family(such as Lipitor, Zocor) to achieve accelerated reduction in LDL cholesterol. Such a combination has been shown to achieve an additional 17 percent reduction in raised LDL cholesterol levels.

Adding stanol/sterol enriched foods to a medicine of the statin family is more effective and safe in lowering cholesterol than doubling the dose of the medicine.

Both plant sterols and stanols are equally effective in reducing raised LDL cholesterol. Some food preparations contain plant stanols, others add sterols
(see their nutrition facts labels). You can choose either of the two for getting cholesterol-lowering benefit.

To get maximum cholesterol reduction from these substances, follow a low fat, low cholesterol diet.

A 2006 review published in The International Journal of Clinical Pharmacolog and Therapeutics suggests that eating foods enriched with stanols and sterols leads to a 20 percent reduction in the risk for heart disease.

A research article appearing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2006 indicates that consumption of low calorie foods fortified with these compounds may significantly cut raised CRP (C-reactive protein) levels in the blood, reducing the risk for heart disease. CRP is an indicator of inflammation in the body; its raised levels are now regarded as a strong risk factor for coronary heart disease.

The American Heart Association suggests that people whose LDL-cholesterol levels are high may consume stanol-sterol-enriched foods as part of treatment to lower their LDL. By this recommendation, the following people may consider to consume foods fortified with plant stanols and sterols:

Those with total cholesterol of 200 mg d/dL (5.2 mmol/L) or above.
Those with LDL cholesterol of 130 mg/dL(3.3 mmol/L) or higher.
People with diabetes whose LDL cholesterol is 100 mg/dL (2.6mmol/L) or higher.

To continue with cholesterol reduction from plant stanols or sterols,you should consume foods fortified with these substances every day.

Limitations of Stanols/Sterols

Research has not shown any serious side effect from consumption of plant sterols and stanols. However:

Long-term use of these substances may cause lowering of beta carotene levels in the blood. Beta carotene (which gives carrot its yellow color) is an antioxidant that performs many important functions including protecting your body from damaging chemicals called free radicals. Studies, however, suggest that eating dark green and yellow colored vegetables and fruits every day in a sufficient quantity will cancel any beta carotene deficiency occurring from consuming stanols and sterols.
One study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in1999 reported mild gastrointestinal complaints from the use of plant stanols/sterols in a few young children.

Source: M.K.Ansari, Ph.D. Unusual Methods of Preventing Diabetes and Related Complications, eBook, 2011.