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Cholesterol-Lowering Nutraceuticals Affecting Vascular Function and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

  • Lipid Abnormalities and Cardiovascular Prevention (G De Backer, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The aim of this review is to provide an update on the effects of the dietary supplementation with cholesterol-lowering nutraceuticals and nutraceutical combinations affecting vascular function and CV risk in clinical interventional studies.

Recent Findings

Current evidence supports the mild-to-moderate cholesterol-lowering efficacy of red yeast rice, berberine, plant sterols, fibers, and some nutraceutical combinations whereas data on the individual cholesterol-lowering action of other nutraceuticals are either less striking or even inconclusive. There is also promising evidence on the vascular protective effects of some of the aforementioned nutraceuticals. However, except for red yeast rice, clinical interventional studies have not investigated their impact on CV outcomes.

Summary

Evidence of both cholesterol-lowering and vascular protection is a prerogative of few single nutraceuticals and nutraceutical combinations, which may support their clinical use; however, caution on their uncontrolled adoption is necessary as they are freely available on the market and, therefore, subject to potential misuse.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Vanessa Bianconi, Massimo Raffaele Mannarino, Teresa Cosentino & Matteo Pirro

  2. Hospital “Santa Maria della Misericordia”, Piazzale Menghini, 1, 06129, Perugia, Italy

    Vanessa Bianconi, Massimo Raffaele Mannarino, Teresa Cosentino & Matteo Pirro

  3. Biotechnology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Amirhossein Sahebkar

Authors
  1. Vanessa Bianconi
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  2. Massimo Raffaele Mannarino
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  3. Amirhossein Sahebkar
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  4. Teresa Cosentino
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  5. Matteo Pirro
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Correspondence to Matteo Pirro.

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Vanessa Bianconi, Massimo Raffaele Mannarino, Amirhossein Sahebkar, Teresa Cosentino, and Matteo Pirro declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lipid Abnormalities and Cardiovascular Prevention

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Appendix

Table 1 Clinical trials investigating the effects of single nutraceutical preparations on markers of vascular function and cardiovascular outcomes
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Bianconi, V., Mannarino, M.R., Sahebkar, A. et al. Cholesterol-Lowering Nutraceuticals Affecting Vascular Function and Cardiovascular Disease Risk. Curr Cardiol Rep 20, 53 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-018-0994-7

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