Beta-Glucans for Cardiovascular Support

Active Hydrogen Adrenal Extracts Alanine Alpha-Linolenic Acid Alpha-Lipoic Acid AMP Amylase Inhibitors Arginine Bee Pollen Beta Carotene Beta-glucan Betaine Beta-Sitosterol Biotin Borage Oil Boron Bovine Cartilage Bovine Colostrum Brewer's Yeast Bromelain Calcium Capsaicin Carnitine Carnosine Chitosan Chloride Chlorophyll Chondroitin Chromium CLA Cobalt Coenzyme Q10 Copper Creatine Cysteine DHA DHEA DMAE EGCG Evening Primrose Oil 5-HTP Fiber (Insoluble) Fiber (Soluble) Fish Oil Flavonoids Fluoride Folate Fumaric Acid GABA Gamma-Linolenic Acid Glucomannan Glucosamine Glutamic Acid Glutamine Glutathione Glycine Grape Seed Extract Histidine HMB Hydroxycitric Acid Indole Inosine Inositol Iodine Ipriflavone Iron Isoleucine Lactase Lecithin Leucine Lipase Lutein Lycopene Lysine Magnesium Malic Acid Manganese Mannose Melatonin Methionine Methoxyisoflavone Molybdenum MSM N-Acetyl Cysteine NADH Naringin Niacin Octacosanol Oligosaccharides Olive Leaf Extract Ornithine Oryzanol PABA Pancreatic Enzymes Pantothenic Acid Phenylalanine Phosphatidylserine Phosphorus Phytic Acid Policosanol Potassium Pregnenolone Probiotics Propolis Psyllium Pyridoxine Pyruvate Quercetin Resveratrol Retinol Riboflavin Ribose Royal Jelly SAMe Selenium Shark Cartilage Silicon Sodium Spirulina Spleen Extracts St. John's Wort Strontium Sulforaphane Sulfur Taurine Thiamine Tocopherol Tea Tree Oil Tyrosine Usnic Acid Valine Vanadium Vinpocetine Vitamin A Vitamin B1 Vitamin B2 Vitamin B3 Vitamin B5 Vitamin B6 Vitamin B9 Vitamin B12 Vitamin C Vitamin D Vitamin H Vitamin K Whey Protein Xylitol Zinc

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By Ronald Steriti, ND, PhD

The basic ß-D-glucan is a repeating structure with D-glucose molecules joined together in linear chains by beta-bonds (ß). A proteoglycan consists of a central, linear polypeptide chain with multiple, branched chains of poly-beta-D-glucans attached.²¹

Beta-glucans are a form of natural soluble dietary fiber found in foods, including grains (such as barley, oats and corn bran) and mushrooms (such as Agaricus blazei, maitake, reishi and shiitake). One of the richest concentrated sources of beta-glucans is found in the cell walls of baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisae). Agaricus blazei murell is a mushroom that contains significant amounts of beta-glucans.

Health Benefits of Beta-Glucans

Beta-glucans have been shown to have several health benefits, including:

reducing the risk of coronary heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol levels;
enhancing the immune system; and
protecting against cancer and the development of tumors.

In December 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled that companies could make the claim that their products help to reduce the risk of heart disease. A serving must contain at least 0.75 grams of beta-glucan; the product must be used as part of a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol diet; and it must contain no more than 3 grams of fat and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat. Many oatmeal and oat bran cereals, and other products now meet these requirements.¹ The same claim can now be made for barley.²

In December 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled that companies could make the claim that their products help to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Lowering Cholesterol

Studies have shown that beta-glucans can lower cholesterol (total and LDL) in humans (see Table 1), rats^15,27 and hamsters.^13,25 Most of the studies were on subjects that had high cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) and/or high LDL cholesterol (hyperlipidemia). Studies on healthy subjects showed no significant improvement.⁴

Proposed mechanisms that might account for their cholesterol-lowering properties include:^3,23

reducing the intestinal absorption of cholesterol and bile acids by binding to glucans;
shifting the liver from cholesterol syntheses to bile acid production; and
fermentation by intestinal bacteria to short-chain fatty acids, which are absorbed and inhibit hepatic cholesterol syntheses.

Improving Glycemic Control

Several studies have shown that beta-glucans blunt the glycemic and insulin response. An eight-week single-blind, controlled study of 100 hypercholesterolemic subjects received a beverage with 5 or 10 grams of beta-glucans from oats or barley. Compared to control, 5 grams of beta-glucans from oats significantly lowered total cholesterol by 7.4 percent, and postprandial (30 min) concentrations of glucose and insulin. The beverage with 10 grams of beta-glucans from oats did not affect serum lipids significantly in comparison with control.⁷

Beta-glucans prepared from Agaricus blazei murill by hot water extraction were shown to have anti-hyperglycemic, anti-hypertriglyceridemic, anti-hypercholesterolemic and anti-arteriosclerotic activity in diabetic rats. Oligosaccharides derived from hydrolyzing beta-glucans with glucanase from Bacillus megaterium had about twice the activity of beta-glucans with respect to anti-diabetic activity.²²

Beta-glucans from the African grass species Rhynchelytrum repens showed hypoglycemic activity in rats with streptozotocin- induced diabetes. Blood sugar was reduced to normal levels for approximately 24 hours, compared with only four hours for beta-glucan from barley.¹²

A study of 11 healthy men compared a meal high in fiber (15.7 grams) with another meal that was low in fiber (5 grams). The high-fiber meals contained pasta prepared by replacing 40 percent of the wheat with two types of barley flour: barley naturally high in beta-glucan and flour enriched with beta-glucan during processing. Plasma glucose and insulin concentrations increased significantly after all meals, but the insulin response was more blunted after the barley-containing meals.⁸

A 50 percent reduction in glycemic peak can be achieved with a concentration of 10 percent beta-glucan in a cereal food.²⁶ Eight men with non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM) consumed high-fiber, oat bran-concentrate bread products or white bread. Improvements were seen in glycemic control and insulin response. Mean total plasma cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels also were lower in the fiber group.²⁴

Reducing Blood Pressure

One study of 18 hypertensive and hyperinsulinemic subjects compared a diet of oat cereal (standardized to 5.52 g/day beta-glucan) to a low-fiber cereal control diet (less than 1.0 g/day total fiber) over six weeks. The oat cereal group experienced a 7.5 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure and a 5.5 mm Hg reduction in diastolic blood pressure, while there was virtually no change in the control group. The oats group experienced a significant reduction in both total cholesterol (9 percent) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (14 percent).¹⁸

A 50 percent reduction in glycemic peak can be achieved with a concentration of 10 percent beta-glucan in a cereal food.

A study of 36 men with elevated blood pressure found that there was no difference in blood pressure between the control group and the study group that consumed an additional 14 grams per day of dietary fiber in the form of oat (5.5 grams of beta-glucan) or wheat cereals (no beta-glucan) for 12 weeks.¹¹

Table 1: Lowering Cholesterol
Study	Population	Results
(Karmally, Montez, et al. 2005)	152 men and women with high LDL; 3 g from oats daily for six weeks.	Reduced cholesterol by 4.5 and LDL-C by 5.3%.
(Behall, Scholfield, et al. 2004)	25 hypercholesterolemic men and women; 0, 3 or 6 g from barley daily.	Reduced cholesterol by 4%, 9%, and 10%; and LDL by 8.0%, 13.8%, and 17.4%.
(Keogh, Cooper, et al. 2003)	18 hypercholesterolemic men; 8.1-11.9 g beta-glucan per day (scaled to body weight).	No significant improvement.
(Kerckhoffs, Hornstra, et al. 2003)	48 hypercholesterolemic subjects; mean 5.9 g beta-glucans in orange juice for four weeks.	Decreased LDL cholesterol by 0.26 +/- 0.07 mmol/L (6.7 +/- 1.8%; P = 0.001).
(Jenkins, Kendall, et al. 2002)	68 hyperlipidemic subjects consumed 8 g/d fiber from beta-glucan or psyllium.	Reduced total cholesterol (2.1 +/- 0.7%; P = 0.003).
(Behall, Scholfield, et al. 1997)	23 hypercholesterolemic subjects consumed oat fiber extracts for five weeks.	Total and LDL cholesterol levels decreased significantly.
(Beer, Arrigoni, et al. 1995)	14 healthy men consumed oat gum instant whip, 9 g beta-glucan/day for 14 days.	No significant improvement.
(Braaten, Wood, et al. 1994)	20 hypercholesterolemic subjects consumed oat gum (2.9 g beta-glucan) twice daily for four weeks.	Cholesterol and LDL were reduced by 9%.
(Davidson, Dugan, et al. 1991)	156 hypercholesterolemic subjects consumed either oatmeal or oat bran at doses (dry weight) of 28 g (1 oz), 56 g (2 oz), and 84 g for six weeks.	Decreases in LDL-C levels of 10.1% with 84 g of oatmeal; 15.9% with 56 g of oat bran, and 11.5% with 84 g of oat bran.
(Demark-Wahnefried, Bowering, et al. 1990)	71 hypercholesterolemic subjects consumed 40-50 g oat bran daily for four weeks.	Cholesterol decreased on average by 10% to 17%.

References

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“Food Labeling: Health Claims; Soluble Dietary Fiber From Certain Foods and Coronary Heart Disease.” Final rule. Fed Regis, 2006;71(98):29248-29250.
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Behall, K.M., D.J. Scholfield, et al. (2004). Diets containing barley significantly reduce lipids in mildly hypercholesterolemic men and women. Am J Clin Nutr;80(5):1185-1193.
Biorklund, M., A. van Rees, et al. (2005). Changes in serum lipids and postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations after consumption of beverages with beta-glucans from oats or barley: a randomised dose-controlled trial. Eur J Clin Nutr;59(11):1272-1281.
Bourdon, I., W. Yokoyama, et al. (1999). Postprandial lipid, glucose, insulin, and cholecystokinin responses in men fed barley pasta enriched with beta-glucan. Am J Clin Nutr;69(1):55-63.
Braaten, J.T., P.J. Wood, et al. (1994). Oat beta-glucan reduces blood cholesterol concentration in hypercholesterolemic subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr;48(7):465-474.
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De Paula, A.C., R.V. Sousa, et al. (2005). Hypoglycemic activity of polysaccharide fractions containing beta-glucans from extracts of Rhynchelytrum repens (Willd.) C.E. Hubb., Poaceae. Braz J Med Biol Res;38(6):885-893.
Delaney, B., R.J. Nicolosi, et al. (2003). Beta-glucan fractions from barley and oats are similarly antiatherogenic in hypercholesterolemic Syrian golden hamsters. J Nutr;133(2):468-475.
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Keogh, G.F., G.J. Cooper, et al. (2003). Randomized controlled crossover study of the effect of a highly beta-glucan-enriched barley on cardiovascular disease risk factors in mildly hypercholesterolemic men. Am J Clin Nutr;78(4):711-718.
Kerckhoffs, D. A., G. Hornstra, et al. (2003). Cholesterol-lowering effect of beta-glucan from oat bran in mildly hypercholesterolemic subjects may decrease when beta-glucan is incorporated into bread and cookies. Am J Clin Nutr;78(2):221-227.
Kidd, P. M. (2000). The use of mushroom glucans and proteoglycans in cancer treatment. Altern Med Rev;5(1):4-27.
Kim, Y.W., K.H. Kim, et al. (2005). Anti-diabetic activity of beta-glucans and their enzymatically hydrolyzed oligosaccharides from Agaricus blazei. Biotechnol Lett; 27(7):483-487.
Lia, A., G. Hallmans, et al. (1995). Oat beta-glucan increases bile acid excretion and a fiber-rich barley fraction increases cholesterol excretion in ileostomy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr;62(6):1245-1251.
Pick, M.E., Z.J. Hawrysh, et al. (1996). Oat bran concentrate bread products improve long-term control of diabetes: a pilot study. J Am Diet Assoc;96(12):1254-1261.
Wilson, T.A., R.J. Nicolosi, et al. (2004). Reduced and high molecular weight barley beta-glucans decrease plasma total and non-HDL-cholesterol in hypercho-lesterolemic Syrian golden hamsters. J Nutr;134(10):2617-2622.
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Dr. Ronald Steriti graduated from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and currently resides in Naples, Fla. He has written numerous articles on nutritional support for, among other conditions, chronic leukemia and pancreatic cancer. He can be contacted via e-mail at ron@naturdoctor.com.