An important progress in reducing the risk of Coronary Artery Disease in humans

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

Sai Ram. Happy to share an important excerpt from a research article received

from another group. Whether a similar supplementation will reduce the risks in

people with normal cholesterol etc. needs to be studied.

 

Swamy

 

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Pure EPA Supplementation Dramatically Cuts the Risk of Coronary

Artery Disease in Hypercholesterolemic Adults with High

Triglycerides and low HDL

 

Author: Steve Austin, N.D.

 

Reference: Saito Y, Yokoyama M, Origasa H, et al. Effects of EPA on

coronary artery disease in hypercholesterolemic patients with

multiple risk factors: sub-analysis of primary prevention cases from

the Japan EPA Lipid Intervention Study (JELIS). Atherosclerosis

2008;200:135- 40.

 

Design: Single blind randomized intervention trial

 

Participants: 9,982 hypercholesterolemic Japanese adults without

previous history of coronary artery disease (CAD)

 

Study Medication and Dosage: All participants were given statin

drugs (10 mg/day pravastatin or 5 mg/day simvastatin) , with or

without 1.8 g/day pure EPA for a mean of 4.6 years. EPA was

administered in two 300 mg capsules t.i.d. (total of 6 capsules per

day). Capsules contained ethylester EPA with >98% purity.

 

Main Outcome Measures: Incidence of major coronary events (e.g.,

sudden cardiac death, fatal infarction, nonfatal infarction, and

unstable angina pectoris)

 

Key Findings: The risk of CAD events in subjects with total

cholesterol (TC) of at least 250 mg/dL, triglyerides (TG) of at

least 150 mg/dL, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol

levels of less than 40 mg/dL decreased by a statistically

significant and clinically dramatic 53% in those assigned to take

EPA versus those not so assigned.

 

Practice Implications: EPA is possibly the best proven and most

consistent intervention for lowering elevated TG. Though statin

drugs are effective in lowering TC, a variety of natural

alternatives exist (e.g., niacin, weight loss, and a reduction in

dietary saturated and trans fatty acids).

 

The findings from the current report are important for several

reasons. By combining a TC-lowering drug with TG-lowering EPA,

incidence of life threatening CAD events was reduced by over 50%--a

statistic not previously shown with the use of stain drugs alone.

This dramatic reduction in risk from an intervention trial must be

viewed in context. CAD is the leading killer in America and reducing

incidence by more than half in a large subset of hyperlipidemic

patients would dramatically reduce morbidity, the financial cost to

society, and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people.

 

We currently have little reason to assume that more standard EPA/DHA

combinations would necessarily be less effective than the pure EPA

used in the current trial, yet more evidence is needed before we can

make what now may appear to be only a small leap of faith.

Healthcare practitioners should alert all patients with high TG,

high TC, and low HDL (a common presentation for hyperlipidemic

subjects) of these dramatic findings. Such patients should be

supplemented with EPA or possibly EPA/DHA, at least until more is

known.