2002-05-03 09:30:00

Sometimes, it takes science many years to catch up to what folk medicine has known forever. Naturalists have got to be particularly pleased with the recent decision by the FDA to approve a traditional Indian remedy used for the past 2,500 years as a cholesterol-lowering drug.

The new/old drug is called guggul. It's the resin of the myrrh shrub, and in India it's been used to combat obesity, arthritis and artery disease with great results. It's now also being used to help lower cholesterol.

Studies done in native India have shown really good results at doing just that. Paradoxically, the only study done here in the United States showed the opposite effect, it seemed to raise cholesterol instead.

Researcher suspect that's because the drug is interacting with other medications the subject is taking and the cholesterol-lowering effect is being negated. David Moore from the Baylor College of Medicine is a big fan of guggul.

"It really does lower cholesterol in a number of clinical studies in the Indian literature," he said. He and his team have been able to identify the reason why it works-it blocks activity in the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) on cells. (They are involved in regulating cholesterol and affecting bile acids.)

They came to the conclusion that since the bile acid which FXR influences is the only way to control how much cholesterol gets out of the body, if you control the FXR, you therefore control the cholesterol.

To test out their theory, they bred mice to lack FXR and found that they were not affected by the guggul at all.

Moore has created a small biotechnology company with some colleagues called X-Ceptor Theraputics. They are hoping to further refine their ability to affect FXR and come up with a drug that will target it specifically.

At this time, there appear to be significant drug interaction issues which will have to be resolved before the drug becomes practical, and they are still learning lots about how the drug functions, but it holds great promise once they get the kinks worked out.

Guggul is not the first "natural" remedy found to lower cholesterol. In 1998 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned cholestin, made from fermented red rice and used in traditional Chinese medicine, saying it contained the prescription drug lovastatin.

That ruling was reversed by a federal judge in 1999.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine; Reuters