Ingredient framework; direct source links are available in the studies library when published.
How it works
Exchange -- plant sterols compete with cholesterol for micellar incorporation in the gut, and share the same intestinal transporter (NPC1L1) -- the same transport step targeted by ezetimibe, giving a drug-parallel though much weaker mechanism
Exchange -- beta-sitosterol differs from cholesterol by one extra ethyl group on its side chain -- small, but enough that the body absorbs plant sterols far less efficiently, a built-in ceiling on how much circulates even at high intake
Adapt -- phytosterols and sterolins are studied for modulating immune-cell (T-helper) balance and post-exertion inflammatory response, a mechanism separate from cholesterol competition -- the two are often described together but act through different proposed pathways
Sense -- sterolins (sterol glycosides occurring alongside beta-sitosterol) are the fraction most specifically studied for the immune-modulating effect
Maintain -- in Cortitrol the 165mg is dose-matched to this immune-balance and post-exertion line of research, not to the multi-gram cholesterol range -- a different mechanism, not a smaller dose of the same one
Form matters
The same nutrient can be made in very different forms -- and a study done on one form does not automatically apply to another. Methylcobalamin is not cyanocobalamin; magnesium glycinate is not magnesium oxide; a whole-food extract is not the synthetic isolate that was studied. Two things decide whether what is in the bottle behaves like the research: the exact form, and independent lab verification (a Certificate of Analysis) that the form and dose on the label are truly what is inside. Without a COA, you are trusting a label, not the science.