Clinical effect of phytosterol containing milk on serum cholesterol

Phytosterols are widely distributed in plants. Many studies show that phytosterols play an important role on health. The work presented herein is a parallel, placebo-based control designed study. 44 subjects with high serum cholesterol (200mg/dL) were included in this study. Total experimental period was 10 weeks. All subjects consumed 500 mL of normal milk everyday in the run-in period (one week). Subjects in experimental group intook 500 mL of milk (containing 1.8g phytosterol) everyday. Subjects of control group drank 500 mL of normal milk everyday. Blood and stool samples were obtained at the 0, 2^nd, 6^th, 10^th and 13^th week (3 weeks after stop administration). Results clearly showed that the levels of serum cholesterol were significantly 15% decreased after two more weeks of administration of phytosterol-containing milk as compared with the run-in period. Such clinical effect was continuously maintained 3 weeks after stop administration. In addition, the levels of LDL-c were also greatly decreased. The risk of cardiovascular disease is almost 22% reduced. The excretion of cholesterol in stool is significantly during the use of phytosterol containing milk. It is evident that phytosterol containing milk intake will be greatly helpful for the prevention of cardiovascular. The major effect of phytosterol is probably to compete the absorption of cholesterol in the body.