**4.1 Study design**

The studies were conducted at the Institute of Cardiology, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (Saratov, RF). The protocol was approved by the local ethics committee. All patients were informed about the purpose of the study and had given written consent regarding their participation in the study.

Two-group studies were executed in a parallel, double-blind, controlled fashion for 4–8 weeks. Subjects visited the clinic for anthropometric and blood pressure measurements and for drawing blood samples. During the first visit to the clinic, subjects received an aliquot of study product sufficient for the first two study weeks. Then, subjects were provided with additional 14-day aliquots of study product during visits to the clinic after every two follow-up weeks.

Of the three-group or multi-group studies, two intervention groups were run at the same time, followed by the other group(s), also two at the same time.
