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Lowering Cholesterol
Saponins Lower Cholesterol and Reduces Inflammation Cholestrol is important to a healthy body. Cholesterol forms cell membranes, some hormones and is necessary for digestion. But a high level of cholesterol in the blood (hypercholesterolemia) is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Your heart is about the size of your fist. It gets its own blood supply through small coronary arteries that are about the diameter of a strand of spaghetti. Shut off one of these strands and a piece of your heart muscle dies. Even in people who look and feel well, a waxy fat-like substance called plaque can build up in arteries like silent snow, often going undetected until serious damage is done.  Saponins, a natural bile acid sequestrant, works entirely within the digestive system, binding with cholesterol from the liver bile and dietary cholesterol, along with intestinal pathogens, making them unavailable for re-absorption. This mixture is then removed from the body through the normal elimination process. As the body needs more cholesterol for bile acid production used for digestion, the liver removes cholesterol from the bloodstream, leaving less to build up in the arteries. "The binding of bile acids by saponins has other important implications. Bile acids excreted in the bile are called primary bile acids. They are metabolized by bacteria in the colon, producing secondary bile acids. Some of the secondary bile acids are promoters of colon cancer. By binding to primary bile acids, saponins reduce formation of the secondary bile acids." Peter R. Cheeke, Ph D Professor of Comparative Nutrition Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University Reducing Inflammation What Does An Abscessed Tooth or a Splinter in a Finger Have to do with Your Risk of a Heart Attack? Much More than You Might Think! Inflammation destabilizes cholesterol deposits in the cornary arteries, leading to heart attacks and strokes. According to recent articles in The New England Journal of Medicine, we now know that ordinary bacterial infections such as sinus infections, urinary tract infections, bronchitis, periodontal (gum) disease and stomach ulcers can be contributing factors to heart disease. Inflammation is the immune system's natural response for fighting infections and healing injuries. However, excessive inflammation from chronic low-level infection, "which often produces no systoms," appears to damage the lining of artery walls and contributes to the buildup of plaque. Heart attacks occur when an inflammed lesion of cholesterol plaque burst, causing a blood clot. In those individuals that reduced both cholesterol and inflammation, heart disease was reversing. The plaque was actually coming off the walls of the arteries." says Dr. Steven Nissen, Cleveland Clinic." (Return to the top of this page and select the Purchase Button) Published Research Reports  "For the first time, we have hard clinical evidence that lowering inflammation lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke and cardiovascular disease. The magnitude of the benefit is at least as large as the magnitude of the benefit from cholesterol reduction. This is a radical change in our thinking about heart disease prevention." Paul M. Ridker MD New England Journal of Medicine (2005) Saponins if regularly included in the diet, may help the body protect itself from cancer. Saponin and saponin-like compounds have shown evidence that they can buttress the body's ability to thwart cancer and heart disease. A. Venket Rao, Chemist University of Toronto Ontario, Canada Masai Diet Wards Off Heart Disease Boris Weintraub, Geographica Milk and meat meals of the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania would terrify an American fearing cholesterol and heart disease. Yet Masai cholesterol levels are one-third lower than the U.S. average, and heart disease is almost unknown. New research offers a clue: Masai also eat a soup laced with bitter bark and roots that contain cholesterol-lowering substances called saponins. "Masai don't worry about cholesterol; it's a non-issue to them. And they love fat," says Timothy Johns of McGill University in Montreal. Supporting his findings, studies show that urban Masai without access to the bitter plants do develop heart disease. Scientists are evaluating other saponins potential for lowering cholesterol in the blood, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease. Some saponins, taken orally, combine with cholesterol in the gastrointestinal tract, making cholesterol unavailable for absorption. Thus, saponin derivatives may yield a natural agent for treating or preventing heart disease. Manuel F Balandrin, Chemist Science News, Vol 148 Sterodial saponins may tend to break down the high molecular fats in foods whose absorption contributes to high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, hypertriglyceridemian, and hypercholesterolemia. One of our most significant findings was that no patient taking saponin extract for 6 months or more continued to show an abnormally high blood pressure or excessive blood triglyceride and cholesterol levels. In other words, there were permanent benefits. Dr. Robert Bingham Arthritis News Today, Vol 2, No 6 Saponins form strong insoluble complexes with cholesterol. This has many important implications, including cholesterol-lowering activity in humans. The blood cholesterol-lowering properties of dietary saponins are of particular interest in human nutrition. One of the most prominent research programs on this subject was that of Dr. Rene Malinow at the Oregon Regional Primate Center, whose research (published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1997) demonstrated unequivocally the cholesterol-lowering properties of saponins. This desirable effect is achieved by the binding of bile acids and cholesterol by saponins. Bile acids form mixed micelles (molecular aggregates) with cholesterol, facilitating its absorption. Cholesterol is continually secreted into the intestine via the bile, with much of it subsequently reabsorbed. Saponins cause a depletion of body cholesterol by preventing its reabsorption, thus increasing its excretion. Peter R. Cheeke, Ph D Professor of Comparative Nutrition Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University Saponins - A Useful Treatment for Hypercholesterolaemia There is now a substantial body of evidence that dietary saponins can lower plasma cholesterol concentrations. They act either directly, by inhibiting absorption of cholesterol from the small intestine, or indirectly, by inhibiting reabsorption of bile acids. Where direct inhibition of cholesterol absorption occurs, saponins could prevent absorption not only of a high proportion of dietary cholesterol, but also a high proportion of the cholesterol derived from bile and the desquamatior, of mucosal cells. Saponins are potentially of great significance in human nutrition since it seems likely that the low saponin content of the typical Western diet may be partly responsible for the high incidences of heart disease in Western countries. D. Oakenfull and G. Sidhu European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1990) 44, 79-88 According to A. Venket Rao, a professor and researcher at the University of Toronto's Department of Nutritional Sciences, saponins which generally pass through our digestive system without being absorbed--bind onto the cholesterol that we eat. Then the two make their exit together, lowering cholesterol levels. Rao and his colleagues believe the saponins may even help prevent colon cancer. Normally, bile acid pours into the stomach to help absorb fats from foods. Some bacteria in the large intestine turn the bile into a substance that is highly carcinogenic. That's why a high-fat diet increases the risk of colon cancer. Research suggests that when saponins travel through, they stop the toxic material from forming. The evidence of saponins' benefits is so compelling that several pharmaceutical companies are already designing saponin-based drugs to lower cholesterol and to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines. Jennifer Reid Holmes READER'S DIGEST August, 1996 Saponins can bind cholesterol and thus interfer with cell growth and division. While drugs have side effects, many of them serious, saponins are safe. Mary Clarke, Ph D Extension Specialist, Nutrition Education Department of Human Nutrition, Kansas State University |
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