Sapporo Medical Journal

Abstract : Hypercholesterolemia is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease. One of the natural food that can lower cholesterol is Spirulina. Spirulina contains several active ingredients, especially phycocyanin and β-carotene, which have antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity. Spirulina will be mixed with Yogurt that can lower cholesterol as well. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of Spirulina Yogurt (Spirulina platensis) on total blood cholesterol levels in patients with hypercholesterolemia. The study was used as a pretest-posttest randomized control trial experimental with a control group design. The population in this study was hypercholesterolemia patients (total cholesterol ≥200 mg/dl). Samples were taken by purposive sampling, a sample of 8 people in the treatment group, and 8 people in the control group. The treatment group was given Spirulina Yogurt (1gram/200ml/day), while the control group was given Yogurt (200ml/day) for 14 days. The results showed that there was no significant change in the value of the control group (p=0,074>0,05), but there was a significant change in the treatment group (p=0,017<0,05). There was no significant difference in total cholesterol between the treatment and control groups (p = 0,812>0,05). Therefore, further research is needed to determine the effective dose and period time of the study and the process of making Spirulina yogurt properly so that it can be effective in lowering cholesterol.