Efficacy and safety of Armolipid Plus®: an updated PRISMA compliant systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials.

Armolipid Plus® is a multi-constituent nutraceutical that claims to improve lipid profiles. The aim of this PRISMA compliant systematic review and meta-analysis was to globally evaluate the efficacy and safety of Armolipid Plus® on the basis of the available randomized, blinded, controlled clinical trials (RCTs). A systematic literature search in several databases was conducted in order to identify RCTs assessing the efficacy and safety of dietary supplementation with Armolipid Plus®. Two review authors independently identified 12 eligible studies (1050 included subjects overall) and extracted data on study characteristics, methods, and outcomes. Meta-analysis of the data suggested that dietary supplementation with Armolipid Plus® exerted a significant effect on body mass index (mean difference (MD) = -0.25 kg/m2, p = 0.008) and serum levels of total cholesterol (MD = -25.07 mg/dL, p < 0.001), triglycerides (MD = -11.47 mg/dL, p < 0.001), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD = 1.84 mg/dL, p < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (MD = -26.67 mg/dL, p < 0.001), high sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP, MD = -0.61 mg/L, p = 0.022), and fasting glucose (MD = -3.52 mg/dL, p < 0.001). Armolipid Plus® was well tolerated. This meta-analysis demonstrates that dietary supplementation with Armolipid Plus® is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in serum lipids, glucose, and hs-CRP. These changes are consistent with improved cardiometabolic health

Safety Evaluation of α-Lipoic Acid Supplementation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Studies.

Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is a natural short-chain fatty acid that has attracted great attention in recent years as an antioxidant molecule. However, some concerns have been recently raised regarding its safety profile. To address the issue, we aimed to assess ALA safety profile through a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analysis of the available randomized placebo-controlled clinical studies. The literature search included EMBASE, PubMed Medline, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, and ISI Web of Science by Clarivate databases up to 15th August 2020. Data were pooled from 71 clinical studies, comprising 155 treatment arms, which included 4749 subjects with 2558 subjects treated with ALA and 2294 assigned to placebo. A meta-analysis of extracted data suggested that supplementation with ALA was not associated with an increased risk of any treatment-emergent adverse event (all p > 0.05). ALA supplementation was safe, even in subsets of studies categorized according to smoking habit, cardiovascular disease, presence of diabetes, pregnancy status, neurological disorders, rheumatic affections, severe renal impairment, and status of children/adolescents at baseline

Association between post-traumatic stress disorder and hypertension in Congolese exposed to violence: a case-control study.

Numerous risk factors have been involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension. The contribution of psychological factors, including post-traumatic stress disorder, remains largely underexplored, despite their potential role in hypertension. We compared the prevalence of trauma, post-traumatic stress and other psychological disorders between hypertensive and normotensive patients from Bukavu (Democratic Republic of Congo), a 25-year war-exposed city. In this case-control study, we assessed past traumatic events with the Stressful-Events-Scale, post-traumatic stress disorder through the post-traumatic diagnostic scale, depression and alcohol use disorder through the MINI-International-Neuropsychiatric-Interview, and emotion regulation through the Emotion-Regulation-Questionnaire in 106 hypertensive and 106 normotensive patients, enrolled at the Bukavu General Hospital. Compared with normotensive controls (73% women, age: 43 ± 14 years, BP: 121 ± 10/75 ± 8 mmHg), hypertensive patients (57% women, age: 42 ± 13 years, BP: 141 ± 12/82 ± 7 mmHg, on a median of two antihypertensive drugs) were exposed to more man-made traumas (61 vs. 13%, P < 0.001), used more expressive suppression (P = 0.05) and less cognitive reappraisal (P = 0.02) as emotional regulation strategies. They developed more frequent post-traumatic stress disorder (36 vs. 7%, P < 0.001) and major depressive disorder (37 vs. 13%, P = 0.001), often in association with alcohol use disorder (23 vs. 4%, P < 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression, post-traumatic stress disorder [OR = 3.52 (1.23-6.54)], man-made trauma [OR = 2.24 (1.15-4.12)], family history of hypertension [OR = 2.24 (1.06-4.44)], fasting blood glucose [OR = 1.85 (1.07-3.08)], BMI [OR = 1.28 (1.12-2.92)], expressive suppression [OR = 1.23 (1.11-2.23)] and cognitive reappraisal [OR = 0.76 (0.63-0.98)] were independent predictors of hypertension. In Congolese populations exposed to war, man-made trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder appear to be more tightly related to hypertension than classical hypertension risk factors