Functional foods and dietary supplements might have a role in supporting drug therapy. These products may (1) have an additive effect to the effect that a drug has in reducing risk factors associated with certain conditions, (2) contribute to improve risk factors associated with the condition, other than the risk factor that the drug is dealing with, or (3) reduce drug-associated side effects, for example, by restoring depleted compounds or by reducing the necessary dose of the drug. Possible advantages compared with a multidrug therapy are lower drug costs, fewer side effects and increased adherence. In the present review we have focused on the support of statin therapy using functional foods or dietary supplements containing plant sterols and/or stanols, soluble dietary fibre, n-3 PUFA or coenzyme Q 10 . We conclude that there is substantial evidence that adding plant sterols and/or stanols to statin therapy further reduces total and LDL-cholesterol by roughly 6 and 10 %, respectively. Adding n-3 PUFA to statin therapy leads to a significant reduction in plasma TAG of at least 15 %. Data are insufficient and not conclusive to recommend the use of soluble fibre or coenzyme Q 10 in patients on statin therapy and more randomised controlled trials towards these combinations are warranted. Aside from the possible beneficial effects from functional foods or dietary supplements on drug therapy, it is important to examine possible (negative) effects from the combination in the long term, for example, in post-marketing surveillance studies. Moreover, it is important to monitor whether the functional foods and dietary supplements are taken in the recommended amounts to induce significant effects.
Combination therapy: Dyslipidaemia: Statins: Functional foodsThe world market for functional foods (FF) and dietary supplements (DS) is expanding rapidly. In 2010 FF are expected to represent 5 % of the total global food market (1) and the market for DS is estimated at more than $60 billion worldwide (2) . In general, the target population of FF or DS is healthy individuals with slightly elevated risk factors or some physical discomfort. However, due to the fast growing market of FF or DS and the accompanying strong advertising and marketing, also patients on medication may be stimulated to use FF or DS. This may have several consequences for the quality of drug treatment as stated by de Jong et al. with the example of the combined intake of plant sterols and/or stanols and statins (3) . Whereas they addressed the additive effect of plant sterols and/or stanols on reducing LDL-cholesterol values in patients on statin treatment, their main focus was the possible negative aspects of the combination, such as unfavourable effects on patient adherence with drug treatment and increasing the potential for food-drug interactions.In the present review we will focus on the possible beneficial effects that FF or DS may have on drug therapy. Because of the large number of subjects treated suboptimally with statins (hydroxymethylglutaryl Co...