Lipid panel profile

Effect of 5 y of calcium plus vitamin D supplementation on change in circulating lipids: results from the Women's Health Initiative
Am J Clin Nutr 91: April 2010. Swapnil N Rajpathak, Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Linda Van Horn, Jennifer G Robinson, Simin Liu, Matthew Allison, Lisa W Martin, Gloria YF Ho and Thomas E Rohan. From the Department of Epidemiology Population Health Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx NY; the Department of Preventive Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Chicago IL; the Departments of Epidemiology & Medicine University of Iowa Iowa City IA; the Department of Epidemiology University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles CA; the Departments of Family & Preventive Medicine University of California at San Diego San Diego CA; the Department of Epidemiology George Washington University Washington DC. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The study sponsors had no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; the writing of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The Women's Health Initiative is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services. Address correspondence to SN Rajpathak, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461.
Dietary calcium and vitamin D intakes may be inversely associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, possibly because of their potential beneficial effects on circulating lipids. Clinical trials that have evaluated the effect of calcium supplementation on lipids are limited by a short follow-up, and data on vitamin D are scarce.Objective: The objective was to evaluate the effect of a longer-term effect (over 5 y) of calcium and vitamin D (CaD) supplementation on changes in the concentrations of several lipids: LDL, HDL, non-HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)]. The study was conducted in 1259 postmenopausal women in the Calcium plus Vitamin D Trial (1 g elemental Ca as carbonate plus 400 IU vitamin D3/d compared with placebo) of the Women's Health Initiative. Analyses were conducted by intention-to-treat. Repeated measurements on lipids during follow-up were analyzed by linear mixed-effects models.Results: Overall, the change in lipids was relatively small [≤5% except for Lp(a), which was 20–25%], and there was no significant difference in the mean change of any lipid variable between the active and placebo groups. Our results indicate that CaD supplementation is not associated with lipid changes over 5 y. Existing and future CaD trials should consider evaluating this association for different doses of supplements.

Does tribulus extract raise or lower lipid levels?
    We have not seen such studies.