Cinnamon ??

Numerous sites and references comment on the LDL lowering and blood pressure helping (via aterial relaxation) benefits of cinnamon. Most recommend the "stick" form of cinnamon. So I am holding a bottle of cinnamon supplement capsules I purchased and it says cinnamomum cassia on the label. Cassia cinnamomum is the type powdered and sold as spices in stores and is stated to contain "large amounts of coumarin". While I was interested in this as a help with lowering LDLs, is this a supplement I should stay away from?

Ken

No thoughts on this?

Ken,

Why not buy Ceylon "true" cinnamon?

According to Wikipedia:

"Due to the presence of a moderately toxic component called coumarin, European health agencies have recently warned against consuming large amounts of cassia.[20] This is contained in much lower dosages in Cinnamomum burmannii due to its low essential oil content[citation needed]. Coumarin is known to cause liver and kidney damage in high concentrations. Ceylon cinnamon has negligible amounts of coumarin.[21]"

Better safe than sorry :-)

lisa

Ken - cinnamon is said to help lower blood glucose. From what I've heard on that topic, even for that purpose, you have to take very large amounts for any effect.

Regarding LDL... what you want to avoid having is Oxidized LDL...that's the culprit along with knowing about your LDL particles. If you haven't had the Lipoprotein(a).. or LP(a), that would be important to know.

Keep in mind that LDL has a function in your body. Following is a comment from a post on Oxidative Stress and Free Radical Damage that I'll be submitting shortly. I've been interrupted in finalizing it due to the current Conference Room session on the very important topic of optimizing the Na/K pump function to facilitate proper cardiac cell voltage... but I hope to post the entire article soon. It has specific relevance to your situation in that oxidative stress is common in everyone and causes lots of health problems. hope you read the complete post when I finally get it ready... hopefully soon, I just have to polish up the punctuation and spacing etc. It's basically ready to go.

" Damage to fats
When the oxidative stress, molecular activity, molecular damage starts taking place, it damages DNA up to and including DNA mutation and forms adducts which we know is a primary cause of cancer formation – the DNA mutation and damage – the oxidative stress/free radicals that are going around not well controlled will damage the lipids in your body – they’ll oxidize cholesterol forming the atherosclerotic plaque in arteries and leading to heart attack And by the way, it’s only OXIDIZED cholesterol (LDL) that forms that plaque…not healthy cholesterol. Cholesterol, itself, is an antioxidant and cholesterol can function as a hydrogen donor.

One of the things that cholesterol does for us – we don’t have time to talk about the high cholesterol nonsense – but the cholesterol lodges itself into the cell membrane to protect the cell from various types of damage including free radical damage and also hold the cell rigid and strong according to the scientific studies.

LDL levels - LDL carries CoQ10, lycopene and other antioxidants to the tissues so why in the world would I want to stand in the way of someone making LDL when that LDL is going somewhere delivering antioxidants and other benefits to the target location? Something to think about. "


Also, here's a web clip:

Lp(a) is really an LDL cholesterol particle bound to an additional protein called apoprotein(a) (apo(a)). LDL cholesterol particles, just like VLDL and IDL, each contain one apoprotein B molecule (apo . The apo(a) particle binds to the LDL particle via apo B, and they do so through two linked sulfur molecules, the so-called “disulfide linkage.”

Sirtori CR, Calabresi L, Ferrara S, Pazzucconi F, Bondioli A, Baldassarre D, Birreci A, Koverech A. L-carnitine reduces plasma lipoprotein(a) levels in patients with hyper Lp(a). Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2000;10:247-251.

ApoA-I production is decreased by Vitamin D - Wehmeier K, Beers A, Haas MJ, Wong NC, Steinmeyer A, Zugel U, Mooradian AD (2005). "Inhibition of apolipoprotein AI gene expression by 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3". Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1737



Jackie