[Dietary supplementation in the treatment of hyperlipidemia]

While dietary and pharmacological therapies are the mainstay of treatment of hyperlipidemia, there has been a surge of interest for nonpharmacological treatments such as dietary fibre and food flavourings. In placebo-controlled studies, oat bran in relatively large doses of 56-95 grams per day have been shown to reduce serum cholesterol by 5-9%. Psyllium has caused a 5-15% reduction of serum cholesterol with doses of 10.2 grams per day, and guar gum a reduction of 5-17% with doses of 15 grams per day. Documentation of long-term effects is inadequate. Fresh garlic contains over 70 compounds containing sulphur, which may be biologically active. In animal experiments cholesterol is reduced by supplementing the diet with large doses of fresh, boiled, or dried products. Human studies are poor methodologically, and none has documented constancy of diet during the study.