Objective: To examine the effect of oat bran supplemented diet on serum cholesterol in hypercholesterolaemic males who had failed to comply with a conventional lipid lowering diet.
Design: Run-in period with a conventional lipid lowering diet followed by supplements of oat bran (70 g per day) for six weeks. Wash-out period without oat bran ended the survey.
Setting: The workplace of Pyhäsalmi Mine, Finland.
Subjects: 59 volunteer male miners whose serum cholesterol was over 6.1 mmol/l in spite of a conventional lipid lowering diet.
Main outcome measures: Differences between means for serum cholesterol concentrations at different phases of the survey.
Results: During the oat bran supplemented diet serum total cholesterol decreased by 6.2%, from 6.93 to 6.50 mmol/l (p = 0.000) and LDL cholesterol by 9.5%, from 4.64 to 4.20 mmol/l (p = 0.000). During the wash-out phase serum total cholesterol increased by 2.3%, to 6.65 mmol/l (p = 0.084) and LDL cholesterol by 5.0%, to 4.41 mmol/l (p = 0.021). The reduction in cholesterol levels on oat bran supplement correlated positively with the pre-treatment values.
Conclusions: Oat bran seems to offer an additional dietary means of coping with hypercholesterolaemia.