Keep Cholesterol in Check

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Garlic. Michael Castleman, author of Blended Medicine, The New Healing Herbs and many other health books, calls garlic “the ultimate herb for preventing heart attack and stroke.” It has antioxidant activity and can protect LDL cholesterol from oxidation. It mildly lowers blood pressure, inhibits platelets from clumping (a step in blood clot formation), enhances the breakdown of clots within blood vessels and diminishes the arterial stiffness that comes with age and high blood pressure. Garlic also lowers triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, and raises HDL cholesterol, and the plant’s sulfur-containing compounds inhibit the liver’s manufacture of cholesterol.

Although two 1998 studies failed to find benefit from garlic supplements, at least 14 other studies demonstrate that garlic preparations decreased total serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Overall, the herb lowers cholesterol by about 12 percent. “The total weight of the evidence shows that garlic lowers cholesterol, particularly when used as part of a comprehensive program,” Castleman says.

In a 2001 study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers compared enteric-coated garlic powder tablets with a placebo in treating people with high cholesterol who had not improved on drug therapy. After 12 weeks, the garlic group had significant reductions in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, while the placebo group had a slight increase in both. A four-year study of people with advanced atherosclerosis, published in the journal of the same name, found that 900 mg per day of a standardized garlic powder shrank atherosclerotic plaques by 2.6 percent, compared to a 15.6-percent increase in the placebo group.

When garlic is chopped, the enzyme allinase converts the sulfur-containing amino acid alliin to allicin, which produces garlic’s renowned odor and most of its therapeutic effects. Subsequent testing of garlic brands found the lot used in one of the negative studies mentioned above had almost no detectable amount of allicin. Conversely, testing of the batch used in a positive study showed the products were higher in allicin. Heat destroys allinase, and Castleman also says one of the studies showing garlic to be ineffective used steam-distilled garlic, which contains no allicin.

Most studies have used a dosage of 600 to 900 mg of powdered garlic that contained about 1.3 percent allicin. Many experts prefer raw garlic, but how much is enough? Castleman says the research varies, from one or two cloves daily, to up to 10 cloves. It depends how much your palate and digestion (and your friends) can handle.

Soy. Eating soy products, particularly when substituted for meat, reduces cholesterol. According to a 2000 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, soy enhances liver metabolism of LDL cholesterol and also may lower blood pressure, reduce atherosclerosis and increase arterial elasticity.

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