This week, InterHealth Nutraceuticals launched a new dietary supplement brand to aid heart health made out of its patented blend of Sphaeranthus indicus and Garcinia mangostana (also known as mangosteen).
The blend, named CardiaSlim, is the same used in an earlier weight-loss product, Meratrim. “When we evaluated the research done on the Sphaeranthus indicus-Garcinia mangostana combination ingredient for weight loss we realized that we were consistently getting significant benefits for cardiovascular health, particularly for lipid modulation,” Paul Dijkstra, President and CEO of InterHealth Nutraceuticals, told NutraIngredients-USA.
“Weight loss and cardiovascular health are intricately related,” he added. “We are offering CardiaSlim as a way for our customers to market the heart health benefits also seen in the Meratrim research. Offering them as two separate ingredients allows our customers to clearly position [these] products.”
The research process
Three clinical studies were conducted to help verify the product’s effectiveness, two of which were peer-reviewed. For the independent subject study, over a period of 16 weeks, 60 people with higher cholesterol levels took either 400 mg of CardiaSlim or a placebo twice a day.
“All subjects were instructed to follow a standard 2,000 kcal/day diet and walked for 30 minutes five days a week,” Dijkstra said. “[the] CardiaSlim supplemented group showed statistically significant improvement in blood lipid profile and body weight, waist and hip size compared to placebo.”
Moreover, the test also demonstrated overweight adults demonstrating healthy triglyceride levels and reduction in LDL and total cholesterol, as well as en increase in HDL levels.
The peer-reviewed studies that used CardiaSlim’s formulation were 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies published in Obesity and Journal of Medicinal Foods, and showed similar results to InterHealth’s own study.
A warm welcome
As of now, CardiaSlim is available only for supplements, and the response has been, in Dijkstra’s words, “extremely positive.” He believes it has a lot to do with the tests that back up its cardiovascular benefits. “Add weight loss benefits on top of that and you have one ingredient with multiple benefit claim possibilities,” he says
As for future development of the product, Dijkstra said: “InterHealth’s model is to continue to conduct research on all our brands.”