Find out how doctors can predict your risk for heart disease just by looking into your eyes.
Called Ateronon, the active ingredient in this tomato-based pill comes directly from the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet: lycopene. This antioxidant gives tomatoes their red color, and it is also what blocks the bad "LDL" cholesterol from clogging arteries. While more trials are needed to determine Ateronon's effectiveness, it is now being sold in stores in England.
The preliminary trials are encouraging. After it was tested on some 150 people with heart disease, Ateronon was shown to reduce the oxidation of harmful fats in the blood to almost zero within eight weeks. Neuroscientist Peter Kirkpatrick, who will conduct further research on Ateronon at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge on behalf of Cambridge Theranostics Ltd., told the BBC he thinks it could be much more effective than statin drugs currently used to control high cholesterol.
Not everyone is convinced, though. Dr. Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation told the BBC, "As always, we caution people to wait for any new drug or modified 'natural' product to be clinically proven to offer benefits before taking it. It will take some time, and several clinical trials, to provide such evidence for Ateronon. In the meantime, our advice to heart disease patients or those at high risk is to rely on proven medications prescribed by their doctor, and aim to get the benefits of a Mediterranean diet by eating plenty of fresh fruit and veg."
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