LECITHIN : Powerful Nutrient Against Cholesterol

Lecithin is a complex mixture of phospholipids or phosphatides with soybean oil as a solvent or carrier. It contains glycerol, fatty acids, phosphoric acid, ethanolomine, choline , inositol and various other substances in small amounts. Phosphatides differ from fats in that they contain phosphorous and nitrogen in addition to the constituents of simple fats.

In human beings, lecithin is concentrated in the more important parts of the body such as the brain, reproductive organs, liver, kidneys and the heart. Its presence in these organs is now leading to extensive medical research on its role in human metabolism and the part it plays in the prevention and cure of functional disorders.

Lecithin appears to owe its physiologic action to a number of factors, such as its emulsifying properties, its ability to be incorporated into all vital body tissues, its part in fat absorption, its role in the transport of lipids in the blood stream, and its function in fat metabolism in the liver. Lecithin appears to enhance fat metabolism and lipid transport. As a phosphatide, lecithin is an important substance of the blood lipoproteins. These phosphatides in the blood are essential stabilizing agents of the fats. Since blood plasma is an aqueous medium, the normally water-insoluble fats are maintained in clear solution by the emulsifying action of the phosphatides.

The leading cause of death throughout the modern world is coronary artery disease and the presence of hypertension and its effects on the blood vessels of the brain, the heart, the kidneys and other vascular structures of the body. Excessive cholesterol and lipids in human blood are now acknowledged to be directly associated with increased incidence of arteriosclerosis and the biochemical manifestation of astherosclerosis(hardening of the arteries).