Cholesterol

(see also above under Blood pressure and Cardiovascular diseases)

Japanese researchers showed wakame to suppress the re-absorption of cholesterol in the liver and intestine, and hijiki (both closely related to Seagreens®) to lower serum cholesterol and improve fat metabolism (18). Research especially at Lund University in Sweden confirms the beneficial effect of Omega-3 on blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels (25).

A study completed in 2005 at Karolinska University Hospital and Linköping University, Sweden suggests that elevated concentrations of serum cholesterol is a risk factor for testicular cancer. In deaths among 44,864 men tracked from 1965 there was a positive correlation between serum cholesterol concentration and the incidence of testicular cancer (94).

Seagreens® may help to reduce cholesterol possibly due to the neutralizing action of their unique range of polysaccharides and the regulating effect of its comprehensive mineral content on blood and plasma. It does not reduce the cholesterol we need, whether in the cardiovascular system or brain.

“Thanks to the promoters of the diet-heart hypothesis, everybody ‘knows’ that cholesterol is evil and has to be fought at every turn. If you believe the popular media you would think that there is simply no level of cholesterol low enough. The truth is that we humans cannot live without cholesterol” (220).

The primary seaweed polysaccharide is alginic acid, a linear polymer of L-guluronic and D-mannuronic acid which may inhibit cholesterol absorption. A purified carbohydrate product extracted from various brown seaweeds, called algin or sodium alginate, is used widely in industrial processing as a binding agent. Orally, algin is used to lower serum cholesterol levels (114).

Many Japanese reports show that ‘brown algal-suflated polysaccharides’ have anticoagulant activity similar to heparin, a popular pharmaceutical anticoagulant. One assumption is that these (polysaccharides) clear the blood of fatty substances the same way heparin does. If you inject heparin after a fatty meal, it accelerates the disappearance of visible fats, reducing bad LDL cholesterol and raising good HDL.