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Doctors all over the world are keen to lower cholesterol. Some have proposed adding statins, like fluoride, to municipal water supplies. Statin treatment for all, however, would be extremely expensive. Plant foods are a better way.
Four of the most promising treatments not just for high cholesterol (the risk factor) but also for atherosclerosis (the resulting disease) are onion powder, garlic powder, beet juice, and wheat grass. How do these simple foods fight high cholesterol's ill effects?
- Russian scientists tested a garlic-based dietary supplement called Allicor, made by INAT-Pharma in Russia. When they gave the product to male volunteers in their 50's for a full year, they found that the thickness of the lining of the carotid arteries was reduced. Cholesterol deposits shrank, and arteries became more flexible, less likely to catch clots, more capable of sending blood to the brain. The reduction in the thickness of the intima (linings) of the carotid artery was not dramatic. It was only about 5 percent. In volunteers given a placebo, however, carotid atherosclerosis got even worse. When volunteers took the garlic product for two years, serum atherogenicity, the ability of the blood to form new cholesterol deposits, was reduced by 30 percent.
- The scientists also tested the cholesterol-fighting power of onion powder. They gave volunteers a 300-milligram dose of dried onion powder, and then tested their blood two, four, and six hours later. This tiny amount of onion, not even equivalent to the amount of onion you might get on a sandwich, significantly reduced the power of the blood to form cholesterol deposits, 12 percent two hours after consumption, 28 percent four hours after consumption, and 24 percent four hours after consumption. From this one can conclude that eating just a little onion at every meal, as little as a teaspoon (5 grams), since we don't eat onions in their dried form, reduces the ability to the cholesterol in the bloodstream to form atherosclerotic lesions by 10 to 30 percent.
- The Russian researchers found an even more potent effect of wheat grass. Four hours after consuming a 300-milligram capsule of dried wheat seedlings, the cholesterol-hardening power of the bloodstream was completely eliminated. The researchers also observed complete elimination of the bloodstream's ability to form hardened cholesterol plaques after consumption of 300 mg of dried beet juice. Again, this less than a tablespoon (15 milliliters) of fresh juice.
The effects of onion powder, wheat grass powder, and beet juice powder were stronger than those of the garlic extract supplement. However, the garlic extract powder supplement lowered the ability of the bloodstream to form new plaques for a longer period, and garlic was the only supplement that was found actually to soften and shrink existing cholesterol plaques.
Does this mean that if you have already had a heart attack, or a stroke, or you have been told that you have hardening of the arteries, you should ditch your statin medication and take up garlic, onion, wheat grass, and onions?
There is protective value in statin drugs beyond their effect on just atherosclerosis. They also reduce inflammation. This makes them useful in preventing heart attack and stroke in people who already have damaged arteries. If you use these medications, you should continue using them.
However, it probably is a good idea to start taking a garlic supplement, at the very least, and to enjoy onions, beets, and wheat grass whenever you can. If you are on an anticoagulant medication such as Coumadin (warfarin) or Plavix (clopidogrel), ask your doctor first.
- Orekhov AN, Sobenin IA, Revin VV, Bobryshev YV.Development of Antiatherosclerotic Drugs on the basis of Natural Products Using Cell Model Approach. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2015
- 2015:463797. doi: 10.1155/2015/463797. Epub 2015 Jun 9.
- Photo courtesy of mdid: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdid/199386734
- Photo courtesy of navin75 https://www.flickr.com/photos/navin75/169945568/