A recent pharmaceutical study supported by AstraZeneca, concluded that the company’s low-dose statin drug, Rosuvastatin, was significantly more effective in lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol than fish oil, cinnamon, garlic, turmeric, plant sterols, and red yeast rice over a four-week period.
 
None of the dietary supplements, nor the placebo, resulted in a significant change in LDL-cholesterol. The findings were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions on Nov. 6.
 
Advocates of the dietary supplements industry were quick to point out certain limitations within the study design, including Andrea Wong, PhD, senior vice president of science and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN).
 
According to Wong, the study “completely misses the point,” due to the fact that supplements which have been evidenced to lower LDL cholesterol are not effective within a four-week period, at which point the study ended.
 
“Dietary supplements are not intended to be quick fixes and their effects may not be revealed during the course of a study that only spans four weeks, particularly on a multifactorial condition like high cholesterol. This is a major, and author-acknowledged, limitation of the study,” Wong said.
 
Further, half of the supplements included in the study haven’t previously been clinically supported or marketed for cholesterol lowering benefits.
 
“The other ingredients are better known for their effects on other health outcomes like improvement of triglycerides or insulin modulation, so it is unclear why they were chosen to be assessed for their effects on LDL cholesterol,” Wong said. “As for broader cardiovascular benefits, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expressly authorized a health claim for plant sterols and reduced risk of coronary heart diseases and permits the use of claims for omega-3 fatty acids and reduced risk of coronary heart disease and hypertension. But these outcomes typically take more than 28 days to achieve.”
 
Further, supplements are not intended to replace medications or other medical treatments, Wong noted, but can reduce disease risk, as pointed out in a recent economic report called “Supplements to Savings” which, backed by scientific literature, projects that supplement ingredients including omega-3s could save billions of dollars in healthcare spending on coronary artery disease events.
 
“Dietary supplements, which are regulated as foods, should never be confused with prescription medications, which are specifically intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent specific diseases. Consumers should also not expect supplements to act like prescription drugs, but rather as products that support overall health and wellness,” said Logan Tucker, director of media relations and communications at the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. “The expectation for dietary supplements to produce drug-like effects is unfounded, as non-pharmacological interventions typically require more time to see results.
 
“Each of the supplement ingredients included in this trial has previously been studied and shown to benefit overall heart health when used as part of a multipronged approach, which often includes the implementation of diet and lifestyle changes.”