NEW CHOLESTAWAY PRODUCT
Article by DR. Vladimir Kudlicka
When it comes to cardiovascular incidents our society belongs among the advanced in the civilized world. We don’t need to stress the importance of the levels of blood cholesterol. The reason? For the most part it is ignorance, often carelessness and underestimation of the importance of good nutrition. Heredity counts for a small percentage.
While the United States population has been educated for many years, looking carefully at labels to find out the amounts of fat of consumed foods, the interest in our country is lacking. Most people do not care to look at the label, not many know how to read it, and many food products do not even have the declaration of the fat content. It is not widely known that homogenized smoked meats (hot dogs, salami, sausages, etc.) contain as much as 60 percent of hidden fat. The modern technologies that make it possible to process foods and most meats without fat are not being used. Basically only people affected by the complications of atherosclerosis know that the fat from meats has to be removed before cooking to prevent its absorption. In addition, very little physical work or exercise complicates the situation.
Under these conditions, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the majority of our population is affected by complications of arteriosclerosis, hypertension, fatigue, lower physical and mental efficiency, heart problems and sudden strokes, many of them at a relatively young age.
So it is comprehensible to try to affect the cholesterol level by good diet. A lot of work has already been done in the field of nutrition. A number of older physicians may remember the appearance of the first preparations and the hope that we felt at the time. Perhaps some still remember the study of the World Health Organization who was evaluating the effects of those preparations. Their influence on cholesterol level was very effective. But the joy over the results was soon clouded by the findings of the clinical study. Five thousand people were tested, and after five years the test revealed a significant elevation of malignant disease. Drugs could be used only in cases where an immediate risk of arteriosclerosis was higher than the distant possibility of malignancy. A new generation of drugs followed, they were less effective but supposedly without the grave side effects. Some uncertainty continues that the possibility of each new chemical substance, which enters the body and affects the metabolism, can cause the same problems. It is only logical to adjust the fat intake by educating patients about the right diet and returning to physical exertion.
In this situation the news about a new preparation comes as a good solution. Even though the new product is not an organic substance that would affect the body’s metabolism, it nevertheless significantly affects the cholesterol level in the blood. The new product is not considered a drug but a dietary supplement. We are talking about a product called Cholestaway that is being imported from the USA by the Bogdana Corporation. There are two main ingredients of Cholestaway – calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide. Both of them have been used individually in medicine for a number of years, especially in the treatment of the digestive disorders, without causing any problems. The one is being successfully used for the inflammation of the digestive tract and it hardens the stool . The other one is a non-irritable mineral, which lowers the stomach acid and acts as a laxative. By compounding these two minerals, we get a well-balanced dietary supplement which, in many cases, favorably acts on digestive system. High stomach acidity is more often the cause of problems than low acidity. For another reason products containing calcium and magnesium are very welcomed today, since many people are suffering from osteoporosis.
Magnesium as a dietary supplement has also a calming effect on the nervous system. According to the studies this dietary supplement works in such a way that it binds in the intestines with the fats and cholesterol, forming an insoluble soap that passes through the intestines without being absorbed. Since the cholesterol excreted from the liver is a part of this process, it also binds with the minerals and is excreted in the stool.
Bogdana Corporation made it possible for us to try the Cholestaway product in our endocrinology department, where a group of 7 patients, with significantly high cholesterol, were tested. The treatment lasted 3 months. The tolerance of the product was absolute: there were no complaints and especially no complications that would require adjusting the dosage or stopping the treatment. Cholestaway had no bearing on good appetite. Tested patients were told not to change their daily regime and try not to eat the foods with high fat and cholesterol content. Most of them were already familiar with this regime and were applying it. We chose the patients which did not take the cholesterol lowering drugs or other prescriptions affecting the cholesterol level in the blood (for ex. Thyroid hormones).
The conclusion was very favorable: the blood cholesterol level was significantly lowered in 6 patients, the level was brought to normal or narrowly close to the normal level. The desired result didn’t happen in one patient due to familiar hypercholesterolemia. It’s hard to say, how much the drugs which patient was taking prior, influenced the test. We have to allow that the blood cholesterol level will be elevated temporarily after suddenly stopping the cholesterol-lowering drug due to the intervention in the metabolic process (metabolic rebound). We have to take this into consideration when changing drugs for Cholestaway.
In conclusion of our evaluation we can say that the Cholestaway preparation is welcome as a dietary supplement and could naturally help a lot of people threatened by high cholesterol and thus prevent the complications of atherosclerosis .
MUDr. Vladimir Kudlicka
Doctor of Internal Medicine
HUMANA s.r.o. Praha 6