Summary

A nutraceutical is a food-derivative compound with a demonstrated physiological benefit or able to provide protection against chronic disease. Many of new nutraceuticals have strong scientific basis. Cardiovascular protection is an area of extreme interest for these products. Many study demostrated that well designed nutraceutical supplements have the ability to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), lower trigylcerides and increase total and high-density cholesterol (HDL). When multicomponent products are used, inflammation and oxidative stress are also decreased. On the basis of results coming from clinical trials, nutraceuticals could be an alternative for young patients who refuse to be chronically treated with statins or with statinintolerance. In this paper we review the literature on primary cardiovascular prevention with nutraceuticals and compare the expected benefit with those coming from statin therapy.