Product Overview
Genestra Biotone EFA 100 Softgel Capsules
• Essential fatty acids formula • Linoleic Acid (LA), Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA) • Include phytosterols • Convenient softgel capsules • Increase patient compliance
Biotone EFA is a unique combination of fatty acids, phytosterols and policosanol presented in softgel capsules to ensure better patient compliance.
Additional product info: Hypercholesterolemia is a well-established risk factor for atherosclerosis. Compelling evidence indicated that lowering total cholesterol or LDL-Cholesterol reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). This serum cholesterol-lowering benefit may occur not only in persons with CHD or severely elevated serum cholesterol concentrations, but also in healthy persons with only mild -to moderate elevations in serum cholesterol (1).
Plant sterols are plant compounds with similar chemical structure and biological functions as cholesterol. It was recognised in the 1950s that plant sterols lower serum concentrations of cholesterol by reducing the absorption of cholesterol from the gut, competing for the limited space of cholesterol in mixed micelles (the packages in the intestinal lumen that deliver mixtures of lipids for absorption into the mucosal cells) (2) . Plant sterols reduce the absorption of both dietary and biliary cholesterol from the intestinal tract by 30-50% (3),(4) ,(5) . The FDA authorized the use of labelling health claims for foods containing plant sterol esters for reducing the risk of coronary heart disease based on the FDA's conclusion that plant sterol esters may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol levels with consumption of 1.3 g/day (6).
Policosanol is a cholesterol-lowering agent consisting of a mixture of eight higher aliphatic alcohols purified from sugar cane wax, and whose main component is octacosanol, followed by triacontanol and hexacosanol; the other alcohols (tetracosanol, heptacosanol, nonacosanol, dotriacontanol, and tetratriacontanol) are minor components. The cholesterol-lowering effects of policosanol (5-10 mg/day) have been demonstrated in healthy volunteers, patients with type II hypercholesterolemia, and patients with dyslipidemia associated with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Policosanol therapy is also useful in managing type II hypercholesterolemia in older patients with high coronary risk, not only because of its cholesterol-lowering efficacy, but also, from the clinical point of view, because the treated group showed a lesser extent of AE than did placebo-treated patients and, specifically, did not suffer serious AE (7). The antiplatelet effects of a 40 mg/day policosanol were also observed in a double-blinded placebo-controlled study conducted in healthy volunteers and hypercholesterolaemic patients, and these effects were similar to those induced by 20 mg/day policosanol (9).
