Sesame oil improves cardiometabolic risk factors in patients with metabolic syndrome

Sesame oil with or without vitamin E improves several cardiometabolic indices, including lipids, fasting blood glucose (FBG), blood pressure (BP), homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR) and malondialdehyde among others, in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS), results of a randomized, single-blind controlled trial have shown.

This study sought to examine the effects of sesame oil enriched with vitamin E, sesame oil alone and sunflower oil on lipid profile, FBG, malondialdehyde, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), HOMA-IR and BP in patients with MetS.

Seventy-five individuals with MetS aged 30–70 years were randomly assigned to sesame oil 30 ml/day enriched with vitamin E 400 mg/day (group A, n=25), sesame oil alone (group B, n=25) or sunflower oil 30 ml/day (group C, n=25). The authors measured anthropometric data, dietary intake, BP and biochemical markers, including fasting serum lipids, FBG, serum insulin, malondialdehyde and hs-CRP at baseline and at week 8.

Participants in group A had significant reductions in serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, FBG, HOMA-IR, malondialdehyde, hs-CRP, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and systolic and diastolic BP (p-all<0.02). Group B participants also significantly improved TC, triglycerides, HOMA-IR, malondialdehyde, and systolic and diastolic BP (p-all<0.025), but no significant changes were seen in serum HDL (35.9±7.2 vs 36.4±6.2 mg/dL; p=0.432) and hs-CRP (4.38±1.34 vs 3.96±1.7 mg/dL; p=0.057).

There were no significant changes in any of the clinical and anthropometric data in group C.

“MetS represents a clustering of metabolic abnormalities that are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” the authors noted.