The Lecithin Dosing To Treat Hypercholesterolemia

High cholesterol puts you at risk for heart attacks and stroke, so it's important to lower your cholesterol levels if they are elevated. This condition can be managed with drugs, but some of these have undesirable side effects. Losing weight, choosing healthy fats over trans and saturated fats, reducing dietary cholesterol and making other lifestyle changes also can help. Lecithin supplementation may someday become another treatment for high cholesterol, according to a study published in "Cholesterol" in 2010. Consult a doctor first if you want to try lecithin supplements to manage high cholesterol.

Studies

A lecithin-rich diet may help raise your levels of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, the "good" cholesterol, and help lower the low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, according to a study published in "Cholesterol" in 2010. Supplementing with lecithin reduces total cholesterol by 40.66 percent after one month and 42 percent after two months. The supplements cut bad cholesterol levels by 42.05 percent after one month and 56.15 after two months. The dose used in the study is 500 mg daily, or .5 g.

Other Dosages

As of 2011, there is no established dose for treating high cholesterol with lecithin. For example, another case study published in the "Journal of Oruiomolecular Medicine" in 1991 recommends using 1.2 g lecithin a day to treat high cholesterol. The authors of the study also recommend taking 400 IU of vitamin E and 1 g of vitamin C each day. Other dosages, such as 15 g daily, have been used to test lecithin's effects on high cholesterol, according to "Nutrition and Biochemistry of Phospholipids."

Diet Percentage

A study reported in "Atherosclerosis" in 1998 suggests that ingesting 3.4 percent of total dietary calories from lecithin each day for eight weeks is effective for improving cholesterol profiles. However, this study was done on monkeys and hamsters. Benefits found in animal studies do not always translate directly to benefits for humans.

Considerations

You should consult a doctor before supplementing with lecithin to lower your high cholesterol levels. Set your dosage following your doctor's advice. Lecithin is believed generally safe, but you may experience side effects at high dosages, according to Carol Turkington in "The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease." These include nausea, diarrhea and abdominal discomfort. Safe dosages during pregnancy and for those with liver or kidney disease have not been determined, however. There are reports of hepatitis among people using lecithin, according to Drugs.com. Studies on using lecithin for Alzheimer's disease have used doses as high as 10 g three times daily, Turnkington notes. Studies on using lecithin for an array of health conditions have used doses ranging from 1 g to 35 g daily, note the experts at Drugs.com.