Comparison of policosanol to plant sterols:
A meta-analysis concluded that policosanol, a natural extract of plant waxes, is a promising alternative to standard lipid-lowering agents for those suffering from high cholesterol. The researchers limited their analysis to randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials (23 plant sterol/stanol trials and 29 policosanol trials). The results showed that both plant sterol/stanol and policosanol had beneficial effects on blood lipid levels, but on the whole, policosanol was significantly better. Compared to plant sterol/stanol treatment (3.4 g/day), policosanol treatment (12 mg/day) caused larger decreases in total cholesterol (-16% vs. –8%), LDL cholesterol (-24% vs. –11%), triglycerides ( 12% vs. +4%) and LDL:HDL ratio (-33% vs. -12%) and resulted in a larger increase in HDL cholesterol (+11% vs. 0%). Plant sterols/stanols and policosanol were both well tolerated with hardly any adverse side effects. (105)
Next Page — 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137