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Diet, Cholesterol Drug Combo Works Best
Feb. 5, 2002 -- Many of us would like to believe that lowering our cholesterol is as simple as popping a pill. But if you really want to get the most bang for your buck, combining a Mediterranean diet with the drug is the way to go. And the right foods may even ease some of the bad effects of cholesterol drugs.
Both drugs and diets can lower high cholesterol levels. Drugs usually can lower cholesterol more than a healthy diet. But combining the two gives you the best effect. And researchers have also found that the right diet also can counteract some of the bad effects of these drugs.
The "Mediterranean diet" has been shown to be a heart-healthy diet. Drugs called "statins" improve health by lowering cholesterol, but the Mediterranean diet may exert heart-healthy effects in other ways. So, the team of researchers wanted to see what effect taking a statin and eating this diet could have. Statins include Lipitor, Pravachol, and Zocor.
Lead researcher Antti Jula, MD, PhD and colleagues studied 120 men with high cholesterol who had not been treated. The men were aged 35 to 64.
Half the men continued their regular diet. The other half were put on a Mediterranean-type diet. Each group was then divided into men who took Zocor 20 mg a day or placebo.
The study is featured in the Feb. 6 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Mediterranean-type diet consisted of the following:
- No more than 10% of energy from saturated and trans-unsaturated fatty acids
- Cholesterol intake no more than 250 mg a day
- Omega-3 fatty acid intake from plants and marine animals (like salmon) of at least 4 grams a day
- Increased intakes of fruits, vegetables, and soluble fiber. Soluble fiber is found in oats, peas, beans, certain fruits, and psyllium. Psyllium is a grain that is found in some cereal products, in certain dietary supplements, and in certain bulk fiber laxatives.
The men on this diet were told to eat leaner meats, low-fat cheese, skim milk, and low-fat yogurt.
As expected, Zocor improved cholesterol levels more than the Mediterranean diet. When the two were combined, the effect was even greater than with the drug by itself.
But the drug had some potentially harmful effects on antioxidant levels. Antioxidants help get rid of toxic chemicals produced in the body that may increase the risk of heart disease and even cancer. Zocor decreased levels of the antioxidants vitamin E, beta-carotene and ubiquinol-10. The diet also decreased vitamin E levels but to a much lesser degree than the drug did.
But when the drug and the diet were combined, no ill effects on antioxidant levels were seen. So the diet helped counteract the bad effects of the drug on antioxidants.
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