Cholesterol lowering drinks

Hi Lynette

i personally haven't but that's probably due to the fact I have never drank one.

a friend of mine did suffer tummy upset when using a certain cholesterol lowering product beginning with 'B', she stopped using it as she felt it seemed to be doing more harm than good.

my own opinion is ALL so called cholesterol lowering products are simply a marketing ploy and do not work, infact can actually do more harm than good.

Hi Lynette,

I took them for 3 months and had no adverse affects at all - apart from the hole in my wallet.  I don't know if it's the porridge, the Omega 3 or the drinks, but something has had a very beneficial affect on my HDL cholesterol.  I've never had such a good result after a fasting blood test - really pleased.  I've now stopped the drinks and am taking Plant Sterols 400mg - 2/day, morning and night (from Just Vitamins).  Much cheaper.  I just hope they are as effective. Perhaps the capsules might be better for you, too?   

No studies exist which demonstrate that stanols and sterols actually improve health, and this fact has not escaped the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which actually advises against the use of stanols and sterols.

The fact is, no published studies have tested the impact of stanols or sterols on human health in the long term. One may argue that this is not an issue because we know that cholesterol reduction is beneficial and, so the benefits are almost assured and, anyway, what harm can they do?

Well, the evidence shows that when we take dietary steps to reduce cholesterol through reducing fat in the diet or substituting saturated fat for ‘healthier’ fats, it does not reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke or overall risk of death. This, obviously, casts some doubt on the validity of the assumption that dietary reduction of cholesterol is necessarily a good thing.

The other issue though concerns safety. How do we know if we do not have the long-term studies of the use of stanols and sterols in humans that are even safe? Again, one may argue what’s the harm, seeing as they’re ‘plant-derived’. Well, it turns out there is quite a body of evidence which suggests far from being the wonder-chemicals we’ve been lead to believe them to be, stanols and sterols may pose real and significant risks to health.

The research was summarized in a 2009 paper published in the European Heart Journal.

Several studies link the presence of higher levels of sterols in the blood stream with raised risk of cardiovascular disease. This evidence is epidemiological, which means we cannot conclude from it that sterols actually increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (only that the two are associated with each other). However, more incriminating evidence comes of studies in which the effects of sterols have been tested on tissues or animals in the lab.

In one study, feeding animals with sterols increased what is known as ‘endothelial dysfunction’ – unhealthy changes on the inside of blood vessels associated increased cardiovascular disease risk. The sterols also led to animals having strokes bigger in size than when no sterols were consumed.

In another study, sterols led to an increased level of damaging oxidation and release of free oxygen radicals (oxidative stress) compared to cholesterol, which suggests a greater capacity to induce chronic disease (including cardiovascular disease). Sterols have also been shown to induce cell death (what is known as ‘apoptosis’), including in the cells which line human blood vessels (endothelial cells). In another experiment, giving plant sterols to rats (with high blood pressure and prone to stroke) shortened their life spans.

In summary, there is no evidence that stanols and sterols benefit human health, and quite a few lines of evidence that suggest these substances have potential for harm. Yet, this is the stuff that is marketed on the basis of their assumed value for heart health.

Only one problem.................the placebo effect

We're talking of sterols and stanols as if they are alien things that are only in drinks - they are readily available naturally in vegetable food.  Sorry I can't quote the study, but one I read found that vegetarians do no benefit from additional sterols and stanols as meat eaters do because they already consume the optimumum level.  The Queen Elizabeth Hospital pdf http://www.uhb.nhs.uk/Downloads/pdf/PiStanolsAndSterols.pdf  suggests 1.5g to 2.4g per day.  

Well having ceased to take well known cholestrol drinks (on sale in most supermarkets) for a few weeks all pain went. I then resumed taking them for four days. I only took them for the four days, as by then the pain had returned and was almost as bad as it had been before. I had thought of the placebo effect, however. I had also  been seeing my GP and been referred for tests due to what we thought was a bile problem. I then realised that when I had stopped taking the drinks the bile at the back of my throat disappeared as well. My conclusion is there is something in these cholesterol lowering drinks has something in them that does not agree with me. I am not saying it will do the same to every one who takes them. But it may effect others like it has me. I shall continue to take my porridge every morning and eat heathly and keep regular check on my cholesterol level as I have a adverse reaction to the statins the GP proscribed.