Javed Asghar, Aruna Bashir, Muhammad Aslam, Shaheena Asif, Abdul Majeed Chaudhry, Shah Murad.
Single blind and placebo controlled research study of effects of Ispaghula on serum lipids.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;5(4):654-7.

Coronary heart disease is main cause of morbidity and mortality throughout world. When serum lipids rise from their normal limits, they tend to deposit at vascular walls, causing narrowing of blood vessels and ultimately to development of coronary heart disease. Ispaghula husk have had been used as house hold remedy for constipation and diarrhea. Husk of Ispaghula is being used frequently now days to decrease serum lipids after vigilant, single-blind, double-blind placebo-controlled and closely monitored research studies. Objective of research was to see effects of Ispaghula on serum lipids in primary hyperlipidemia. The Research conducted at Jinnah Hospital Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2008 to June 2008. 40 hyperlipidemic patients were included in the study. 20 patients were on placebo as control/compare group, and twenty were on psyllium husk, ten gram daily, in divided doses for the period of 12 weeks. Hyperlipidemic patients with other diseases were excluded from the study. Serum cholesterol and triglycerides were estimated by the enzymatic calorimetric method. Serum HDL-Cholesterol was determined by direct method, at day zero and at last day of the treatment. LDL-Cholesterol was calculated by Friedwald formula (LDL= Tc- (TG/5 + HDL-C). Data were expressed as the mean ± SD and “t” test was applied to determine statistical significance of results. P value lesser than 0.05 was the limit of significance. When results were compiled, it was observed that two patients discontinued taking drug given, due to metallic taste of psyllium husk. Psyllium decreased serum total cholesterol from 228.27±4.89 mg/dl to 199.22±2.30 mg/dl, triglycerides from 169.27± 9.92 mg/dl to 164.5±8.56 mg/dl, LDL-Cholesterol from 159.72±5.70 to 129.55±2.81 mg/dl, and increased serum HDL-Cholesterol from 34.61±1.85 to 36.77±1.96 mg/dl in 90 days of treatment. Results of all parameters were significant when paired‘t’ test was applied for result analysis. Psyllium is an effective agent to reduce lipid profile parameters in hyperlipidemic patients.

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