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Lower Cholesterol Without Drugs
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Chapter 8: Guggul – An Ancient Indian Remedy ______________________________________________
What a funny name! Guggul. This is simply an Indian herb from the Commiphora tree that has been well known in India for centuries. Over 2,000 years ago the ancient Sanskrit medical texts spoke of the resin from Commiphora mukul as “clearing the coating and obstruction of channels”, which was their way of talking about clogged arteries from rich food. They also used this for obesity, acne vulgaris, diarrhea, arthritis, rheumatism, and urinary problems. This resin has been a part of Ayurvedic medicine for twenty centuries, but has only recently been discovered in the West. Finally it is being studied in clinics and hospitals for over 20 years now. There have been too many animal studies and not enough human studies unfortunately. Scientists have found, for example, that guggul reduces platelet stickiness so overclotting does not occur in the blood, which causes strokes and heart attacks. A study in 1988 (Planta Medica, volume 4) showed guggul also stimulates thyroid metabolism and function. Increasing metabolism efficiency of the thyroid gland can mean losing weight without eating less. Finally an ancient and established herbal tradition has been validated by western science.
A study in France was reported in Rombi’s “Phytotherapy, A Practical Handbook of Herbal Medicine (1988) showing guggul could lower levels of uric acid in the blood. Gout is known to be caused by the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints and other tissues. In fact a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2000 (volume 283, pages 2404-10) found that uric acid levels studied in 5,926 people is an accurate predictor of ischemic heart disease and mortality. They said, “for each increase in uric acid level, cardiovascular mortality and ischemic heart disease increased.” So, guggul has other heart healthy advantages than just lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Analysis of guggul gum shows the active ingredients are plant sterones or “guggul sterones”. You need about 25 mg a day of these. Read the label carefully to see that you are getting the equivalent of 250 mg of guggul resin with 10% sterone content. To state how much “extract” is in the product is meaningless if the sterone content is not clearly spelled out. Avoid any brands that do not state clearly how much sterone content is given or gives less than this. It is theorized that the actual mechanisms by which sterones lower cholesterol are by binding bile acids in the intestine, stimulating fat digesting enzymes (lipases), and inhibiting what is called “HMG-CoA” reductase enzymes in the liver which help support cholesterol production. Guggul therefore has several mechanisms of action which lower our blood fats.
You should be aware, however, that guggul is exogenous (not found in regular food or in our bodies). Therefore this will not work for some people, while a few will actually be biologically incompatible (allergic) to it. No matter how well it works for you take this for only up to one year as all exogenous supplements lose their effectiveness after 6-12 months. Endogenous supple-ments (which are found in common food and in our bodies) ones work for a lifetime. Endogenous supplements would include beta-sitosterol, beta glucan, soy isoflavones and flax oil.
Studies done on real people have shown up to a 14-27% fall in cholesterol levels and an amazing 22-30% fall in triglyceride levels in only 90 days or less when guggul was given to men and women with high blood lipid profiles. This was done with no change in diet or exercise. Imagine the results when you make better food choices, take the other four “cornerstone” supple- ments, improve your basic hormone profile, and get some regular exercise. One other mechanism thought to be responsible for this kind of effectiveness is that guggul stimulates the liver to take up more of the LDL cholesterol from the blood and destroy it. Lower LDL levels are always better.
In the last two decades clinical studies started appearing first in Indian medical journals. These are traditionally more open to herbal remedies instead of unnatural, toxic prescription drugs. In 1986 a study was published in the Indian Journal of Medicine (volume 84). Then Dr. Satyavati (Indian J. Med. Res. 87, 1988) published a detailed history of guggul resin and the unpublished studies that had been done on blood lipids. Unpublished studies like this can have great validity, but are not seen by the general public. Soon guggul was listed in the modern Indian Pharm- acoepia for doctors and had medical validity. Another study was published in 1986 in the Journal of the Association of Physicians in India (volume 34). In 1989 another study was published in that same journal (volume 37) called “Clinical Trials with Guggulipid: A New Hypolipidemic Agent”. Later in 1994 a study was published in Cardiovascular Drugs and Surgery (volume 8).
In 1991 Dr. Satyavati published another full 35 page study (Econ. and Med. Plant Res. 5, 1999) relating the history, folklore, economics, pharmacology, chemistry, clinical studies, safety and other beneficial of guggul in addition to lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
At Kerala University in India (Indian J. Exp. Biol. 33, 1995) animal studies were published showing that guggul given to laboratory animals reduced their blood lipid levels quickly and effectively without side effects. In 1995 another study was published in the same journal from the same university where they looked for the mechanism by which guggul lowered blood fats. The doctors found that improved liver enzyme activity increased the excretion of excess blood fats in the feces and thereby removed it from the body, rather than allowing it to circulate in the blood. At the Central Drug Research Institute in India (Phytother. Res. 10, 1996) laboratory animals were fed a high cholesterol diet to give them hypercholesteremia. By simply adding guggul resin to their diets they lowered their blood fats even while keeping them on the high cholesterol feed.
And let’s not leave triglycerides out of the review. In the two Indian Journal of Medicine studies and the Journal of the Association of Physicians it was also found that the triglyceride levels were reduced significantly as well. So, in many subjects we have total cholesterol lowered, HDL cholesterol raised, LDL cholesterol lowered, triglyceride levels lowered and even uric acid levels lowered. All these factors add up dramatically to better heart and artery health obviously.
Finally this got the attention of the American scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in October of 2000. Noting that the Indian scientists had shown such dramatic effects on blood lipids in animals and humans and that they also discovered the metabolic mechanism by which this worked they were impressed. Dr. Philippe Szapary studied 90 people in a classic double blind study where some patients received a placebo and others received guggul gum. In the spring of 2001 they finally released their findings and verified the Indian studies. This was all accomplished under a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Other studies have been done but not published. Please remember that increasingly medical journals are far more concerned with expensive, profit making prescription drugs rather than inexpensive natural remedies. One such study involved 200 patients in the classic double blind method for 12 weeks. The ones given guggul lowered their cholesterol by an average of 22% and their triglycerides by an average of 25%. This was done with no change in diet or exercise! This is far more impressive than the mild gains from the toxic statin drugs which are costly, have severe side effects and even require regular liver enzyme monitoring. (Health Supplement Retailer June 1999). This is a natural plant extract with a history of safety for over 2,000 years. The only observed side effects have occurred in a small minority of people who may have very mild digestive symptoms. This is because everyone is biologically unique and some people can be sensitive to certain foods and herbs.
At Jadavpur University in India (Phytotherapy Research v.14, 2000) studied garlic (allicin), Bengal gram seeds (an Indian food), and guggul gum on normal people with no cholesterol or heart/artery problems. Please remember that it is much easier to get results with sick people than with healthy subjects. It can be very difficult to get normal people with no medical problems to improve their health, biological status, and diagnostic factors. They gave the volunteers guggul gum extract and their total cholesterol levels fell an amazing 32% in only a month. The average level was 212 when then started and this dropped to only 143 after one month of supplementation. This occurred with no change in diet or exercise, and no other supplements were used. They concluded rather modestly, “The inclusion of these herbal products in the normal diet may be an alternative effective measure for hypercholesteremia.
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