`Study Finds Extra Virgin Olive Oil Improves Vascular Function in Hyperlipidemia Patients - Olive Oil Times
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Study Finds Extra Virgin Olive Oil Improves Vascular Function in Hyperlipidemia Patients

By Simon Roots
Jan. 22, 2026 18:08 UTC
Summary Summary

A recent study in Greece found that con­sum­ing extra vir­gin olive oil improved mark­ers asso­ci­ated with phys­i­cal func­tion and sur­vival in patients with hyper­lipi­demia, a con­di­tion that increases the risk of ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis and other dis­or­ders. The study involved 50 patients with hyper­lipi­demia and found that higher-phe­no­lic olive oil, even at a lower dose, pro­duced greater improve­ments in reper­fu­sion rate and reduc­tions in blood pres­sure com­pared to lower-phe­no­lic olive oil.

A recent analy­sis pub­lished in the jour­nal Nutrients found that extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion in patients with hyper­lipi­demia improved key mark­ers asso­ci­ated with both short- and long-term phys­i­cal func­tion and sur­vival. The find­ings are based on a ran­dom­ized con­trolled trial car­ried out in Greece.

Hyperlipidemia, defined by exces­sive lev­els of lipids in the blood, sig­nif­i­cantly increases the risk of ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis, a lead­ing cause of dis­abil­ity and death in devel­oped coun­tries. The con­di­tion is also asso­ci­ated with dis­or­ders affect­ing the pan­creas, liver, spleen, eyes and skin.

Focusing on the effects of polyphe­nols, the trial involved 50 patients with hyper­lipi­demia and 20 healthy con­trol par­tic­i­pants matched for age and gen­der. Twenty-two patients con­sumed a lower-phe­no­lic extra vir­gin olive oil con­tain­ing 414 mil­ligrams of polyphe­nols per kilo­gram at a dose of 20 grams per day, while 28 patients received a higher-phe­no­lic olive oil con­tain­ing 1,021 mil­ligrams per kilo­gram at a lower dose of eight grams per day.

To min­i­mize the intake of addi­tional phe­no­lic com­pounds, par­tic­i­pants excluded polyphe­nol-rich foods such as olives, berries, red wine, dark choco­late, nuts, green tea and sup­ple­ments from their diets. No other dietary restric­tions were imposed dur­ing the study period.

Previous research by the same team had linked extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion to favor­able changes in blood lipid pro­files, includ­ing higher lev­els of HDL, com­monly known as ​“good” cho­les­terol. In the new analy­sis, the researchers found that these ben­e­fits extended to the cel­lu­lar level, with clin­i­cally mean­ing­ful improve­ments in endothe­lial func­tion.

Vascular endothe­lial cells line the inte­rior sur­faces of blood ves­sels and are essen­tial to nor­mal phys­i­o­log­i­cal func­tion, play­ing a role in blood pres­sure reg­u­la­tion, clot­ting, inflam­ma­tion and immune response.

Improved endothe­lial func­tion was reflected in increased rest­ing tis­sue oxy­gen sat­u­ra­tion, higher oxy­gen con­sump­tion rates of approx­i­mately eight to ten per­cent, and increased reper­fu­sion rates of approx­i­mately 12 to 15 per­cent. Researchers also observed shorter times to peak hyper­emia and faster recov­ery fol­low­ing induced ischemia, along with mod­est reduc­tions in dias­tolic blood pres­sure and heart rate.

The analy­sis fur­ther showed that the higher-phe­no­lic olive oil, despite being con­sumed at a lower daily dose, pro­duced greater increases in reper­fu­sion rate and larger reduc­tions in sys­tolic blood pres­sure than the lower-phe­no­lic olive oil admin­is­tered at higher doses.

The researchers sug­gest that these find­ings high­light the impor­tance of the polyphe­nol-to-lipid ratio in deter­min­ing vas­cu­lar and meta­bolic ben­e­fits. Higher ratios may enhance intesti­nal absorp­tion, improv­ing bioavail­abil­ity and ampli­fy­ing antiox­i­dant and vasodila­tory effects.

The study also iden­ti­fied sta­tis­ti­cally sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences between male and female par­tic­i­pants, par­tic­u­larly in changes to reper­fu­sion rate. This points to pos­si­ble sex-spe­cific responses to polyphe­nols, poten­tially influ­enced by hor­monal and phys­i­o­log­i­cal fac­tors.

However, the researchers cau­tioned that the num­ber of par­tic­i­pants in each gen­der sub­group was lim­ited. They also noted that unrecorded vari­ables, includ­ing phys­i­cal activ­ity lev­els, med­ica­tion adher­ence and indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences in microvas­cu­lar func­tion, may have influ­enced the results.

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