Hyperlipidemia dietary fiber

It is often difficult to manage hyperlipidemia in FHC with standard dietary management. Specific fibers in appropriate amounts exert a pronounced hypolipidemic effect in man and animals. Pectin and Guar have been especially effective in lowering cholesterol in normal and hyperlipidemic patients.10-H However, not all fibers are effective in iowering lipids. No two sources of dietary fiber have the same effect on lipid metabolism. 2 Some dietary fibers, although effective as hypolipidemic agents, are not palatable or are difficult to incorporate into food because of increased viscosity or other chemical or taste properties. 

It is suggested that dietary fiber sequestrates bile acids decreasing the reabsorption of bile salts, increasing fecal excretion and reducing hyperlipidemia (37). 

Dietary Fiber was an unknown phrase to all but a handful of individuals in the early years of the 1970s when a wide range of potential therapeutic applications were suggested by Hugh Trowell, Denis Burkitt, and Alexander Walker. Twenty-five years later there can hardly be an ordinary mortal who has not heard the term, though he may not be able to define it. In some cases the claims remain largely unsubstantiated but in three areas, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and bowel function, there is sufficient evidence to allow dietary advice to be given. 

Diabetic people are more likely to have dyslipide-mia than nondiabetic people. When control of diabetes is lost, patients may demonstrate gross hypertriglyceridemia due to increased production of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles in the liver as a consequence of the increased flux of free fatty acids from the peripheral tissues. At the same time total and LDL cholesterol may be raised. Improvement in diabetic control often achieves normalization of blood lipids, but where hyperlipidemia persists there may be a place for use of dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, and especially oat yS-glucan-containing foods as an adjunct to dietary and pharmacological therapy (see above). 

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