Can Gymnema sylvestre improve my blood lipid levels?

Since GS is thought to help people with metabolic and lifestyle disease, it has been looked at as a potential natural alternative for people with high cholesterol. There is a lack of high-quality human randomized controlled trials to support this idea. However, one 2022 meta-analysis found that GS reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, without impacting HDL cholesterol.^[1] This lines up with a similar finding from a 2021 meta-analysis showing a decrease in total cholesterol and in triglycerides with GS supplementation.^[2] In the 2022 meta-analysis, the authors propose several possible mechanisms to explain this effect. These include decreased intestinal fat absorption, increased fecal fat excretion, decreased cholesterol synthesis, and an impact on pancreatic lipase function. This is a promising starting point for future research.