India Herbs

I’ve chatted on numerous occasions with my friend Dr. Bradley Wilcox in regards to longevity.  Brad has worked for many years with his brother Dr. Craig Wilcox and Dr. Mokoto Suzuki on the Okinawa Centenarian Study.  Together they’ve authored The Okinawa Diet Plan - a New York Times Bestseller which explains the key factors which attributed to Okinawa having more Centenarians per population than anywhere else in the world.

During my last visit to Hawaii, Brad explained that it is very important to keep your LDL Cholesterol (”bad cholesterol”) below 70 and HDL (”good cholesterol”) over 50.  Since I’ve always lived with high cholesterol, this statement caught my attention.  Brad advised that statins like Lipitor and Crestor are very safe and should be used by most people to maintain low cholesterol.

Upon returning to Singapore, I visited my doctor and explained what Brad told me.  Dr. Singh agreed entirely with this advice and said that he spoke with a Health Advisor for President Bush who stated that the health policy officials in the USA would like to advice Americans to take statins as part of a daily regimen but were concerned about the backlash from the public for advising the ingestion of pharmaceutical medicines as a preventive measure.

While I have starting taking Crestor to lower my HDL, I am also investigating Ayurveda formulations which will help me lower my cholesterol and reduce dependence on Crestor.

Gugulipid, a resin derivative from the Commiphora Mukul Tree, is used in Ayurvedic Medicine to treat high cholesterol.  Here are extracts from 3 clinical trials:

Date: August 1994

Journal: Cardiovascular Drugs Therapy

Author: Singh RB, Niaz MA, Ghosh S

The effects of the administration of 50 mg of guggulipid or placebo capsules twice daily for 24 weeks were compared as adjuncts to a fruit- and vegetable-enriched prudent diet in the management of 61 patients with hypercholesterolemia (31 in the guggulipid group and 30 in the placebo group) in a randomized, double-blind fashion. Guggulipid decreased the total cholesterol level by 11.7%, the low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) by 12.5%, triglycerides by 12.0%, and the total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratio by 11.1% from the postdiet levels, whereas the levels were unchanged in the placebo group. The HDL cholesterol level showed no changes in the two groups. The lipid peroxides, indicating oxidative stress, declined 33.3% in the guggulipid group without any decrease in the placebo group. The compliance of patients was greater than 96%. The combined effect of diet and guggulipid at 36 weeks was as great as the reported lipid-lowering effect of modern drugs. After a washout period of another 12 weeks, changes in blood lipoproteins were reversed in the guggulipid group without such changes in the placebo group. Side effects of guggulipid were headache, mild nausea, eructation, and hiccup in a few patients.

Date: May 1989

Journal: Journal of Association of Physicians of India

Author: Nityanand S, Srivastava JS, Asthana OP

Multicentric clinical trials of the efficacy of gugulipid conducted at Bombay, Bangalore, Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur and Varanasi have been reported. Two hundred and five patients completed 12 week open trial with gugulipid in a dose of 500 mg tds after 8 week diet and placebo therapy. One patient showed gastrointestinal symptoms which did not necessitate withdrawal of the drug. A significant lowering of serum cholesterol (av. 23.6%) and serum triglycerides (av. 22.6%) was observed in 70-80% patients Double-blind, crossover study was completed in 125 patients with gugulipid therapy and in 108 patients with clofibrate therapy. Two patients had flu-like syndrome with clofibrate and opted out from the study. With gugulipid the average fall in serum cholesterol and triglycerides was 11 and 16.8% respectively and with clofibrate 10 and 21.6% respectively. The lipid lowering effect of both drugs became evident 3-4 week after starting the drug and had no relationship with age, sex, and concomitant drug intake. Hypercholesterolaemic patients responded better to gugulipid therapy than hypertriglyceridaemic patients who responded better to clofibrate therapy. In mixed hyperlipidaemic patients response to both drugs was comparable. HDL-cholesterol was increased in 60% cases who responded to gugulipid therapy. Clofibrate had no effect on HDL- cholesterol. A significant decrease in LDL-cholesterol was observed in the responder group to both drugs.

Date: January 1990

Journal: Pharmacol Res

Author: Singh V, Kaul S, Chander R, Kapoor NK

Chronic feeding of guggulsterone to rats showed hypolipidaemic activity in blood serum and liver membrane lipids. The decrease in serum cholesterol is associated with enhanced uptake of LDL by the liver through receptor mediated endocytosis, located on the surface of the cell membrane. In the present communication it has been shown that membranes prepared from liver of guggulsterone treated rats exhibit up to 87% increase in binding sites for human 125I-LDL. Significant decrease in lipid levels of serum as well as of membrane were observed. Lipid lowering activity of the drug in relation to LDL catabolism and other possible mechanisms have been explained.

There seems to be research to support claims that Guggul does reduce cholesterol.  Next week I’ll be visiting Ayurveda doctors in Singapore to discuss their remedies for high cholesterol and actual patient experiences.

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