Study
Polyphenols increase circulating lipids but improve LDL particle quality and reduce LDL oxidation in postmenopausal women: metabotype- and age-dependent effects in a randomised, placebo-controlled crossover trial.
Polyphenol mixture containing 133 mg resveratrol raised LDL cholesterol 9.5% but cut oxidised LDL in 90 postmenopausal women.
Summary Can a polyphenol supplement improve cholesterol health after menopause? Show / hide ↓
Researchers tested a daily mixture of plant compounds called polyphenols in 90 postmenopausal women with mildly high cholesterol. The women took the mixture for eight weeks and a dummy treatment for another eight weeks, with a break in between. The mixture raised total cholesterol by 7%, LDL cholesterol, often called bad cholesterol, by 9.5%, and triglycerides, a type of blood fat, by 16%. At the same time, oxidised LDL, a damaged form linked with artery problems, fell, and measures of LDL particle quality improved. Results varied with the women’s gut bacteria, and the study could not show which of the three main ingredients caused the effects.
What this means for you: This is not a reason to buy a resveratrol or polyphenol supplement. The mixture raised several standard cholesterol measures even though some less-established measures improved, and the study was short and small.
conflicting evidenceThe PolyPAUSE trial gave 90 mildly hypercholesterolemic postmenopausal women a daily polyphenol mixture for 8 weeks: ellagitannins plus ellagic acid at 312 mg, resveratrol at 133 mg, and isoflavones at 166 mg. A 4-week washout and an 8-week placebo period followed. 78 women completed. The lipid results run in two directions at once. Total cholesterol rose 7%, LDL cholesterol rose 9.5%, and triglycerides rose 16% (all p < 0.001), and the increases were larger in older participants. At the same time oxidised LDL fell (p < 0.001) and three ratios covering LDL particle quality and oxidative burden improved (p < 0.001). ApoB reduction was borderline at p = 0.056. Bone markers and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein did not move. Gut microbiota metabotype mattered: equol producers saw a 65% drop in oxidised LDL, and the urolithin A plus equol plus lunularin-producer cluster saw 60%. The design cannot separate the three compounds. Any single-ingredient claim from this trial is unsupported.
Polyphenol supplementation increased Tchol, LDLc, and TGs age-dependently, yet improved LDL oxidative quality. The extent of oxLDL reduction depended on metabotypes, supporting precision health approaches to better characterise cardiometabolic responses to polyphenol intake in postmenopausal women.
Resveratrol was one of three actives in a fixed blend, so the trial cannot attribute any effect to resveratrol on its own. The rise in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides is the opposite of what resveratrol supplements are usually marketed to do. Population is narrow: postmenopausal, mildly hypercholesterolemic, unmedicated women. Not a urolithin A supplementation trial either: urolithin A status mattered only as a gut metabotype classifier for subgroup responses.
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