Tea Extract Offers Hope for Lowering Cholesterol

Tea Extract Offers Hope for Lowering Cholesterol

NASHVILLE, Tenn.Nashai Biotech LLC announced the publication of astudy using its Teaflavin tea extract, which was shown to lower LDLcholesterol with no adverse events. The study, conducted by researchers at theNashville-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center and published in the June23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine (163, 12:1448-53, 2003) (http://archinte.ama-assn.org),involved 240 subjects with high cholesterol who followed a low-fat diet for 12weeks. Also during the 12-week study, subjects were randomly assigned to takeeither a 375 mg/d capsule containing the theaflavin-enriched tea extract (asTeaflavin, containing 75 mg of theaflavins) or placebo in a double blind,parallel-group design. At the end of the study, subjects in the treatment groupexhibited a 16.4-percent decrease in LDL cholesterol, as well as a 3-percent to4-percent increase in HDL cholesterol.