The primary ingredient in Lipo Blast- Bergamot- acts on a specific enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, the same enzyme many statin drugs and even natural supplements like red yeast rice target.  If this enzyme is active it reduces HMG-CoA into mevalonate which then becomes cholesterol.  In an ideal world this system self regulates and cholesterol levels stay within an ideal range, but there are genetic variances, stress, food intolerances and inflammation that can negatively affect the efficiency of this process.

The most common cause of death in Western societies is atherosclerosis–aka heart disease.

Heart disease is characterized by endothelial dysfunction, arterial inflammation and formation of plaques within the blood vessel wall that contain cholesterol, lipids, and calcium (1).

As the plaques increase in size, they progressively obstruct the vascular lumen—restricting blood flow and can eventually cause ischemia.  Ischemia is the reduced deliverance of blood to organs reducing their function and is considered the primary clinical manifestation of atherosclerosis (1).

Endothelial injury is the initial stage in the process of atherogenesis followed by a cascade of events including: vascular inflammation, activation of platelets, proliferation of arterial smooth muscle and deposition of foam cells (macrophages laden with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol).  Oxidized LDL is the main culprit in endothelial injury.  Oxidized LDL has been associated with metabolic syndrome linking a relationship between blood sugar management and preventing heart disease.

Furthermore, advanced glycation end products (formed from reactions between reduced sugar and protein) increase platelet aggregation, promote inflammation, enhancing proliferation of arterial smooth muscle cells and promote lipid accumulation in arterial walls (2).

Several clinical studies have shown that atherosclerosis can be reversed by lowering elevated lipid levels (typically using statin drugs) and implementing a nutrition and exercise regimen.  Ideally lowering lipid levels can be done naturally as statins have been shown to have negative side effects including: muscle pain and damage, liver damage, increased blood sugar or type 2 diabetes and neurological side effects such as memory loss (3,4,5).

A common misconception is that serum cholesterol is directly correlated with a diet high in cholesterol.  This is simply not the case.  The primary regulator of cholesterol is a little enzyme called “HMG-CoA reductase” produced by the liver. Due to its main role in cholesterol synthesis many pharmaceucticals typically target this enzyme.  HMG-CoA reductase is a rate limiting enzyme for cholesterol synthesis and is regulated by a negative feedback loop, in turn producing healthy amounts of cholesterol if working properly.

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