Thursday, March 13, 2008

Heart-risk protein unaltered by daily psyllium

Daily fiber supplementation with psyllium does not reduce levels of C-Reactive Protein, an inflammatory protein connected to heart disease.

In a study lasting 3 months, King and colleagues at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston assigned 162 overweight or obese adults without heart disease to take psyllium supplements (7 or 14 grams daily) or no supplements.

Their objective was to see whether daily fiber supplementation would lower blood levels of CRP and other markers of inflammation. High CRP levels are a common feature of obesity and have been linked to diabetes, the metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, and other risk factors for heart disease.

According to a report of the study in the current issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, changes in CRP levels or the other markers of inflammation were no different between the group that got psyllium fiber supplements and the no-supplement comparison group.

Bonnie - while this study is flawed in its belief that fiber could bring down CRP levels in these subjects, I am not surprised that psyllium itself did not even make a dent. Psyllium is very harsh on the gi tract and is highly allergenic, which could increase CRP. I'd like to see this study with pulverized flaxseed, guar gum, methylcellulose, or glucomannan.

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