The HEALTH Plus | OCTOBER, 2019
06
p06
According to Dr Farouk, the tocotrienols found in palm oil could help with patients with atrial fi brillation
A solution to
a heart problem
Key to preventing atrial fi brillation might just lie
in palm oil’s tocotrienol
T
HE World Health Organisation
(WHO) report states that
cardiovascular disease (CVD)
remains a leading cause of
death and disability worldwide.
Although preventable, an
expected 23.6 million people will die mainly
from cardiovascular disease by the year 2030.
The Health spoke to Dato Dr Ahmad Farouk
Musa, who not only lectures at Monash
University but is currently researching on
preventing the occurrence of atrial fi brillation
(AF) in post-CABG (coronary artery bypass
grafting) surgery patients using tocotrienol, a
Vitamin E isomer derived from palm oil.
Translation? Well, Dr Farouk and his team
is researching on the use of Vitamin E found in
palm oil in preventing abnormal heart rhythm
characterised by rapid and irregular beating
after a heart bypass surgery.
– Dato Dr Ahmad
Farouk Musa
on how a otherwise healthy 20 year-old who suddenly
collapse, it’s not due to heart disease, it’s because of AF.
My hypothesis is that if it’s possible to block the pathway
that causes atrial fi brillation, theoretically you could
block the occurrence of atrial fi brillation,” Dr Farouk
exclaims.
Tocotrienols in action
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/
fs_atrial_fi brillation.htm
What is atrial fi brillation?
“I started looking at post coronary artery
bypass grafting (CABG) patients. I wanted
to know how many percentages of them
developed atrial fi brillation after CABG
procedure. The issue with atrial fi brillation is
that it’s quite common amongst the patients
in the National Heart Institute (IJN). AF puts
patients at an increased risk for stroke because
blood may not be properly pumped out of the
heart, which may cause it to pool and form a
clot. This clot can then travel to the brain and
block the fl ow of blood to part of the brain
which can result in a stroke,” explains
Dr Farouk.
“My previous studies have shown that
the incidence of AF was 28.7 percent among
post-CABG patients in IJN, meaning slightly
more than a quarter developed AF, with a two-
fold increase in death and six-fold increase in
stroke in post-CABG patients,” he explained.
“There was an increase in ventilation time,
ICU-stay and overall hospital stay which
meant an increase in economic burden to both
the patients and the hospital.”
According to Dr Farouk, AF can even occur
without the CABG procedure. “If you ever read
“My previous
studies have
shown that the
incidence of AF
was 28.7 percent among
post-CABG patients in IJN,
meaning slightly more than
a quarter developed AF,
with a two-fold increase in
death and six-fold increase
in stroke in post-CABG
patients,”
Dr Farouk dove head fi rst on what could possibly block
the occurrence of AF and learnt about tocotrienol. “I was
so fascinated by it. It’s not a highly researched subject,
out of all the literatures on Vitamin E, only three percent
was ever written on tocotrienol. During my observation
of tocotrienol, I realized it is way more potent than
tocopherol. What is really good about tocotrienol is
that it has six major medicinal areas; cardio protective
eff ects, neuroprotective eff ects, anti-infl ammatory
eff ects, anti-oxidative eff ects, anti-cancer eff ects and anti
cholesteremic eff ects which means its anti-cholesterol.”
“I published my paper on the incidence of atrial
fi brillation in post CABG patients, my conclusion is that
the next step is do a prospective study – a randomized,
double blind controlled trial. I just began the study this
year and the results will be known in two or three years’
time. The end point is that we will be monitoring the
incidence of atrial fi brillation. The hypothesis is that
tocotrienol would be able to reduce atrial fi brillation post
CABG.” — The Health Plus
Tocotrienols: Emerging ingredient in heart health
IF your vitamin E supplement contains only tocopherol,
you may not be getting all of the benefi ts it has to offer.
While tocopherols are very important, they lack many
of the synergistic benefi ts offered by their cousins,
the tocotrienols. Few people realize that vitamin E is
composed of eight different compounds. Half of these
are called tocopherols, which is the most common form
of vitamin E. The other half are known as tocotrienol.
In various studies, tocotrienol is shown to possess 60
times more superior anti-oxidation activity compared the
standard vitamin E obtained from tocopherols.
However according to Dr Farouk, only three percent of
the literature paper talks about tocotrienol. Why so? “The
researchers do not have tocotrienols because it is mainly
derived from palm oil. They use soy oil instead and this
has a lot of tocopherol instead of tocotrienol. The issue
is the active ingredient – tocopherols does not possess
anti-cholesterdemic properties to help lower cholesterol.
Chemical structure of tocotrienol.
This property is very specifi c to tocotrienol.”
Experts believe that tocotrienols have many health
benefi ts — some that are more powerful than those
found in more common tocopherols. These include
increased brain health and functionality, anticancer
activity, and cholesterol-lowering properties.