Cholestyramine plus pectin in treatment of patients with familial hypercholesterolemia

Authorised EU health claims on pectins

“…Findings from 18 human intervention studies (references listed in footnote 14 ), summarised in a non-systematic review by Reiser (1987), the majority (14/18) of which showed that consumption of pectins resulted in a statistically significant decrease in total cholesterol concentrations 15 14 Keys et al (1961), Fahrenbach et al (1965, Palmer and Dixon (1966), Jenkins et al (1975), Durrington et al (1976), Delbarre et al (1977), Kay and Truswell (1977), Miettinen and Tarpila (1977), Raymond et al (1977), Ginter et al (1979), Jenkins et al (1979), Stasse-Wolthuis et al (1980), Judd and Truswell (1982), Nakamura et al (1982), Schwandt et al (1982), Challen et al (1983), Sablé-Amplis et al (1983), and Hillman et al (1985). 15 Importantly, it is not clear from Reiser's description of this result whether the conclusion on statistical significance was based on a within-group comparison (i.e., comparing end of treatment to baseline values in the pectin group) or a between-group comparison (i.e., comparing results obtained in the pectin group to the control group), the latter comparison obviously being a more robust and reliable comparison.…”

Lipid-Lowering Effects of Dietary Fiber.

“…The hypocholesterolemic effect of pectin has been greatest in hypercholesterolemic patients. In addition the cholesterol-lowering effect of cholestyramine, a lipid-lowering agent, has been found to be accentuated if given with pectin [21].…”

Sodium cholate sorption on N-octadecylpectinamide in comparison with cholestyramine

“…Partially, pectins, a polysaccharide component of the dietary fibres, have shown some hypocholesterolemic activity dependent on their structural properties ( Judd & Truswell 1985;Yamaguchi et al 1995). The combination of cholestyramine with well-tolerated natural pectin has been shown to be an effective agent in the treatment of patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (Schwandt et al 1982). Contrary to these, some other authors have reported the absence of significant cholesterol-lowering effects of pectin as well (Vonderheyde et al 1993;Trautwein et al 1998;Yamada et al 2003).…”