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Beta Glucan Research

Actually beta glucan is probably the most powerful immunity enhancer known to science regardless of cost. There are many studies on animals and humans, showing the great value it has to strengthen our immune systems and even the potential to help against tumors and cancer growth. At the University of Saskatchewan in Canada (Microbiol. Immun. 41, 1997, p. 991-8) researchers showed the power to stimulate the immune system. Other studies have found such potential uses as fighting infections, improving intestinal flora, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetic conditions, ulcers and digestion. This, however, is a website on cholesterol so that is what we'll stress. There are many, many studies on blood lipids so we'll just talk about some of the more interesting of the human studies.

At Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts (Crti. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 39, 1999, p. 189-202) doctors found that both oat and yeast beta glucans lowered serum cholesterol levels. They did this by simply adding beta glucan to the diets of the people they studied. Notice that there is no use of drugs here and this comes from Harvard Medical School where they are traditionally concerned with prescription drugs and not natural plant supplements. In their words, "In addition to decreasing the intake of total fat, saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, blood serum cholesterol can be further decreased by dietary fiber, especially from sources rich in beta glucan such as oats and yeast".

At the University of Syracuse in New York seventy-one men and women with high cholesterol were given various combinations of low fat diets or regular diets with and without oat beta glucan. In a matter of weeks total cholesterol levels were reduced as much as 17% (Journal of the American Dietary Association 90, 1990, p. 223-9). Their high-density cholesterol levels were also increased significantly. This shows the benefit of making better food choices along with taking effective supplements since the people who ate the low fat diet while taking the oat supplement got the best results.

At the University of Massachusetts (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 70, 1999, p. 208-12) researchers found that giving obese men with high cholesterol levels yeast derived beta glucan lowered both their total and LDL levels by a full 8% with no change in diet. They summarized the study, "Thus, the yeast derived beta glucan fiber lowered the total cholesterol concentrations and was well tolerated." As usual any side effects were positive in nature.

At the U. S. Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland (J. Nutr. Biochem. 8, 1997, p. 497-501) people were given oat extracts high in beta glucan content and lowered their cholesterol levels with no changes in diet or exercise. They also found out that other metabolic conditions improved, so new benefits of beta glucan are always being discovered.

Again at the Human Nutrition Research Center (J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 16, 1997, p. 46-51) men and women with high blood lipid levels were given oat extracts high in beta glucan. After only five weeks the groups were switched and those getting the beta glucan received only the usual American diet. Both total cholesterol and LDL levels decreased significantly. In their words, "A significant dose response due to beta glucan concentration in the oat extract was observed in the total cholesterol levels." Thorough studies like this in real people at the most prestigious research centers in the world leave no doubt about the power of beta glucan to lower blood fats.

At Industrial Research Limited in New Zealand (Carbo. Polymers 29, 1996, p. 7-10) researchers used barley derived beta glucan to try and understand the actual metabolic mechanisms by which it lowered blood fats. They first discovered that it increased the secretion of bile acids from the gall bladder. By using highly sophisticated NMR spectroscopy techniques they found the situa-tion to be more complicated than the mere enhanced gall bladder activity. We are more concerned with the practical matters that beta glucan actually works rather than the how and why of it all.

At the University of Lund in Sweden (Ann. Nutr. Metab. 43, 1999, p. 301-9) 66 mildly hypercholesterolemic men were given oat milk in their diet high in beta glucan content for five weeks. This was a classic double blind study where half the men received rice milk with no beta glucan. Of course the men getting the oat milk lowered their total cholesterol and they said, "It is concluded that oat milk has cholesterol reducing properties"

You can see from studies like these there is no doubt that beta glucan is a safe, effective, powerful, proven and inexpensive way to lower your cholesterol levels, yet most people have never even heard of it. Most vitamin companies don't even sell it and it can be difficult to find a reliable, strong, inexpensive brand in your drug store or even in your health food store. People keep taking dangerous, expensive, prescription cholesterol-lowering drugs when then can use natural remedies like beta glucan.

In addition to the benefits we've just covered, it is important to take this because it may well be the most important immune enhancer known to science. Beta glucan strengthens our immune systems so we have optimum healing power in our body and fight off infections of all kinds whether bacteria, fungi or viruses.

You should understand that it is very difficult to study human beings for immune function. Animal studies are used because obviously you can't infect humans with deadly microorganisms and then give half of them beta glucan and see who lives and who doesn't. Animal studies have shown results for such conditions infections of many types, tumors, diabetes, intestinal function and ulcers.

The animal studies have been done for the last ten years in clinics worldwide and published in the major medical journals but beta glucan has only become economically available to consumers in the last few years.

At the University of Saskatchewan beta glucan protected mice from deadly injections of Staphalococcus aureus. In another study nice were injected with equally deadly Eimeria vermiformis but beta glucan protected them. And yet in a third study mice were given the toxic drug dexamethasone and then injected with the deadly Eimeria virus. Even after their immune systems were impaired by the drug the beta glucan protected them. At SRI International the Euglena gracilis virus was injected into various test animals but beta glucan stopped them from dying. At the University of Kansas pigs were given deadly Staphalococcus suis and beta glucan saved them. The doctors there did an in-depth study of various immune system markers to see how it worked.

At the Mayo Clinic lung cancer in mice was reduced by beta glucan. At Tokyo College doctors found strong anti-tumor properties for beta glucan. At Tokyo University doctors found anticancer activity in mice when given beta glucan and suggested they be used as, "biological response modifiers in cancer patients." At Wuhan University they found powerful anti-tumor activity in mice given beta glucan. At the University of Louisville they found the anti-tumor effect of beta glucan was largely due to enhancing beneficial natural killer (NK) cells.