Dietary Supplement Could Safely Lower Triglyceride Levels

The blood plasma of obese rats fed a normal diet is murky with higher levels of fat in the vial at left, and much clearer with lower levels of triglycerides in the vial on the right, which is plasma from rats supplemented with lipoic acid.

A study published in the Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics found that rats whose diets were supplemented with ipoic acid experienced a decrease in triglercerides, which is one of the key risk factors in cardiovascular disease along with cholesterol levels and blood pressure. The lab rats’ triglyceride levels were lowered up to 60%. If these results could be reproduced in humans, the risks of developing atherosclerosis could be greatly reduced.

Lipoic acid is a natural compound and can be found in foods such as red meat and green leafy vegetables. Because it is a powerful antioxidant, considerable research has been done in recent years on its ability to reduce mitochondrial decay in cells and possibly slow the process of aging. In Europe, it has been used as a treatment for neuropathic complications of diabetes for years.

Until a decade ago, high levels of triglycerides in the blood were not considered as a significant sign of atherosclerosis and heart disease, but most experts now see it as an important risk factor. Medicine is often prescribed to battle the causes of heart disease but many have unwanted side effects. The study found that supplements of lipoic acid appeared to affect trigleride levels by increasing the rate of their disappearance in the bloodstream after eating and by also reducing the genetic expression of enzymes in the liver that synthesize triglycerides.

Lipoic acid supplements were shown to be an appetite suppressant in other studies so control groups of laboratory rats were used to ensure that lowered triglyceride levels did not simply result from less food intake. All of the rats were obese to begin with and developed higher triglyceride levels as the experiment went on. The blood triglyceride levels in the rats given the supplement doubled but the group without the supplement experienced an increase of more than 400%.

Since lipoic acid has been used as a dietary supplement for years and has found to be safe, it has strong potential to be used as therapeutic treatments or in the prevention of hypertriglyceridemia and diabetic dyslipidemia in humans.

http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/03/090330200825.htm