Sugar cane extract same as placebo: study

Sugar cane extract same as placebo: study
Tue May 16, 2006 4:52 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The dietary supplement policosanol, which is promoted as a natural way to reduce cholesterol, did no better than a placebo in a trial that contradicts some earlier studies, researchers said on Tuesday.

Made from the waxy coating on sugar cane and sometimes from beeswax, wheat germ and rice bran, policosanol was originally popular in Cuba, where a group of researchers has touted its benefits, the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association said.

The supplement contains alcohols that are supposed to act on cholesterol metabolism in the liver in a different way than statins, the hugely popular class of cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs.

In the nine-month study, 143 patients with high cholesterol were given up to 80 milligrams of policosanol per day or a placebo, and no significant differences were found.

"Our results suggest that (policosanol) is devoid of clinically relevant lipoprotein-lowering properties," at least in the white patients studied, wrote study author Heiner Berthold of the University of Cologne, Germany.

"Still, more independent studies are required to counterbalance the vast body of available positive trials," he said, and to determine if the supplement might have some long-term impact on heart disease.

Among previous studies to show policosanol's benefits, researchers at the University Hospital Center in Zagreb, Croatia, found the supplement lowered blood cholesterol levels by a significant amount and raised levels of a protein contained in so-called good cholesterol in 70 patients.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-05-16T205239Z_01_N16450748_RTRUKOC_0_US-HEART-SUPPLEMENT.xml

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