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Move over statins. A veritable arsenal of natural remedies can lower cholesterol and improve heart health with fewer risks and side effects
Without question, statin drugs lower cholesterol, but many people can't tolerate their side effects. The FDA requires warnings of these risks on drug labels: possible liver damage; memory loss, forgetfulness, or confusion; muscle damage, which can manifest as muscle weakness or fatigue; and raised levels of blood sugar and risk for diabetes.
Ironically, statins deplete levels of CoQlO, a nutrient required by the heart and other muscles, and this is one reason why side effects occur. Taking CoQlO supplements can help correct the problem, and is generally beneficial for the heart. Better still, there are drug-free options for lowering cholesterol.
Depending on your individual situation, natural remedies may be taken alone or, if recommended by a health practitioner, along with a statin to reduce the required dose. As dietary supplements, each of these is available as a single-ingredient product, and some formulas combine two or more for a synergistic effect.
1 Bergamot
Once in a while, there's a breakthrough in the world of natural remedies, and for cholesterol reduction, it's bergamot extract. It comes from a citrus fruit that grows mostly in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Oil from bergamot rind is used to flavor Earl Grey tea, and in aromatherapy, to reduce anxiety, but neither will lower cholesterol. The therapeutic supplement is a bergamot extract from the juice of the fruit.
So far, human studies have tested bergamot extract on more than 400 people with elevated blood fats, including cholesterol and triglycerides, which increase risk for both heart disease and diabetes. These are some of the findings:
An Italian study, published in the journal Fitoterapia, compared a placebo with either 500 or 1,000 mg of bergamot extract. After one month, for the lower and higher dosages, average reductions in harmful LDL cholesterol were 24 and 36 percent and for triglycerides, 30 and 39 percent, while beneficial HDL cholesterol increased by 22 and 40 percent and elevated blood sugar dropped by 15 and...