Plant sterol supplements
Now that the medical profession knows more about what causes heart attacks and coronary artery disease we are being told that we need to decrease our cholesterol levels to remain healthy and to prevent heart attacks and coronary artery disease. Many scientific studies have been done that have been able to connect the dots in regards to heart attacks and high cholesterol levels. As a result more and more people are being given prescriptions for statin drugs to bring down their cholesterol levels. However, there are many negative side effects that people experience when they take these types of prescription medications, so a lot of people are looking for alternative ways to bring down their cholesterol levels.
If your doctor has just recently told you that your cholesterol levels are too high and that he or she wants you to begin taking statin drugs to lower your cholesterol levels, you should know that you can take plant sterol pills as an alternative option. Some of these pills are fairly new on the market while others have been around longer. Actually, the use of plant sterols was in existence before the introduction of statin drugs to pharmacology. They were just not in pill form yet. Plant sterols are found in many foods like margarine and even orange juice even today.
Recent research and studies done in this area have concluded that you can significantly lower your LDL or bad cholesterol levels by up to10% with the use of plant sterol either in food form or by taking plant sterol pills with your daily supplements. You can actually find the results of this research in the American Journal of Cardiology. In fact the National Cholesterol Education Program is now recommending that people who have cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol levels should eat a diet rich in plant sterols.
The compounds found in plant sterol supplements are very similar in structure to cholesterol. Plant sterols compete with cholesterol in the intestines for absorption thereby reducing the absorption of cholesterol into the body. You can also find plant sterols in grains and vegetable oils however there is not enough of it in these substances to make a difference if you are trying to lower your bad cholesterol levels.
Plant sterols are combined with lecithin and then pressed into tablets in order to produce plant sterol pills. Plants sterols are not normally water soluble but once they are mixed with lecithin they become water soluble and are easily absorbed in the intestine. Without the mixture of lecithin they could not be absorbed. There are many over the counter plant sterol pills available to the public today. Many reputable companies are now producing them for sale to the general public so now you can promote healthy cholesterol levels with plant sterol supplements.
To be effective in lowering cholesterol levels, the pills should contain at least 2g of plant sterols. The FDA states that people need to consume between 1.3 and 3.4 g of plant styles a day if they want to lower their cholesterol naturally. This means that you would need to eat many pounds of vegetables every day if you were going to get that much in your diet. A much way to consume that many plants sterols per day is to take sterol pills as a daily supplement.
You can purchase various kinds of plants sterol pills from various websites online. These pills can also be found in your local health food store and in many health magazines or catalogs. Many of these products contain other healthy substances like vitamins, herbs and minerals as well. There are several brand names that are readily available to the general public. You can go online and read the different reviews on the different products and learn about the experiences that real people have with plant sterol pills.
Comments are closed
Related Information
