Heart Beat

Policosanol: A sweet nothing for high cholesterol

A dietary supplement made from sugar cane doesn't lower cholesterol as advertised. Posts on the Internet and magazine ads claim that taking policosanol, which is extracted from the waxy coating of sugar cane, lowers LDL (bad) cholesterol by 25%. That's about as much as a modestly powerful statin. One problem with this claim is that the lion's share of the evidence comes from a single commercial lab in Cuba that markets the supplement.

An independent study done in Germany tested policosanol in men and women with high cholesterol. Groups of 20 volunteers with high cholesterol got either a placebo or 10, 20, 40, or 80 milligrams of policosanol a day. After 12 weeks, LDL levels were no better in any of the policosanol groups than in the placebo group. The supplements also had no effect on related factors, either, including HDL (good) cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoprotein(a).