Research

Hormonal

Oral supplementation with propionic acid (500 mg twice daily for 8 weeks) significantly reduces LDL and total cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolemic humans by modulating intestinal cholesterol absorption via an immune-dependent pathway involving regulatory T cells and IL-10.

If you have high LDL, adding 500mg of propionic acid twice daily for two months can significantly lower your bad cholesterol. This works by boosting specific immune cells in your gut that tell your intestines to absorb less cholesterol. It is a targeted, immune-based approach distinct from standard statins.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Oral supplementation with 500 mg of PA twice daily over the course of 8 weeks significantly reduced LDL [-15.9 mg/dL (-8.1%) vs. -1.6 mg/dL (-0.5%), P = 0.016], total [-19.6 mg/dL (-7.3%) vs. -5.3 mg/dL (-1.7%), P = 0.014] and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels... in subjects with elevated baseline LDL cholesterol levels.
Arash Haghikia et al. · European Heart Journal · 2021

Why this rating

Supported by both rigorous animal models (Apoe-/- mice) and a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical trial (NCT03590496).

Source

Propionate attenuates atherosclerosis by immune-dependent regulation of intestinal cholesterol metabolism

Arash Haghikia et al. · European Heart Journal · 2021

DOI 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab644

rct · n=62Cited 348×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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