Red yeast rice and cholesterol

Public Forum
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In the book “Prescription for Nutritional Healing” by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC I found this fun solution for cholesterol. I’ve titled this forum post “Red yeast rice and cholesterol” as a way to call attention to something the FDA mandated shouldn’t be done. I just did it.

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Red yeast rice is a food product created by fermenting rice with a strain of red yeast (Monascus Purpureus Went yeast). It is also sometimes referred to as Monascus rice or in Chinese Hung-Chu or Hong-Qu. It has long been used in China and Japan as a food and as a remedy for digestive ailments and poor circulation more recently red yeast rice extract taken in supplement form has been found both to reduce overall blood cholesterol levels and improve the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) to LDL (bad cholesterol). A study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine found that people who took red yeast rice and maintained a low fat diet reduced their overall cholesterol levels by an average of 40 points for a period of 12 weeks. The extract contains a number of cholesterol lowering compounds known as statins. One of these is lovastatin, a substance also sold as a prescription drug under the brand name Mevacor. Lovastatin acts to lower cholesterol by inhibiting the action of an enzyme designated HMG-CoA reductase, which in turn limits the rate at which the body produces cholesterol. Studies have shown statins to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart attack. Unlike prescription products, red yeast rice extract has shown no serious adverse side effects in clinical trials. Smaller amounts of lovastatin from a plant as opposed to drugs are required to be effective. This is because it is thought that the natural compounds in which the plant works synergistically with the active ingredient. Merck, which sells Mevacor, asked the FDA to ban red yeast rice extract. The FDA considered Merck’s request but decided to allow companies to continue to sell it. However, the FDA did mandate that there cannot be any mention of lowering cholesterol levels or reducing heart disease risk. Check with your health care provider before using red yeast rice.

FDA Warns Against Use of Red Yeast Rice Supplements

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It certainly feels like Pharma vs. Plants

As always, thanks for your input @jrgerber

I had no idea about this. But I found out that patents protect the pill, not the ferment. When a natural source contains the same active ingredient, drug makers lose exclusivity, so there’s a built-in incentive to keep the “natural” version off pharmacy shelves, or at least off labels. There must be hundreds of examples - including the shutting down of big homeopathic hospitals.

Going to pass this on to a few people.

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Just a little bit more from the midwestern doctor on cholesterol and statins.

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The Statin Disaster — Dr Brownstein’s Holistic Medicine

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That picture from A Midwestern Doctor site gets me thinking about statins, cholesterol, spike protein and blood clots. Spike causes clots to form that don’t break down. When you mix that with statins, I wonder what the outcome is?

A study that looks at occurrences of deaths pre/post COVID in people taking statins might be a very interesting study.

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:+1: So many religious positions on so much that is medical. So much do undo and relearn.

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"One in four adults n the US taking a statin…":angry:

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I’ve known about Red Yeast Rice for about 20 years. I used it several years ago to get my MD to stop hounding me about cholesterol. It worked fine (and I didn’t experience elevated liver enzymes at that time), and I eventually stopped. I recently learned I have a tumor in my lung, and had my current MD prescribe Metformin to reduce glucose. Unbeknownst to him, I resumed using RYR to also deprive the tumor of cholesterol. My most recent labs came back showing elevated liver enzymes, which caused my MD to worry the tumor had metastasized to my liver. I confessed to using RYR, stopped, and we agreed to test for enzymes in another month. So I can say my own experience is that it does lower cholesterol, but you need to monitor liver enzymes.

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Thanks for that fm. Always more to think about.

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I use a dosis of Berberine and i have the same effect than RYR

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:+1: Thanks for that

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I can testify that red yeast rice will lower your cholesterol. It worked for me. However, the same caution applies as if you were taking a prescription statin: monitor liver enzymes. Mine went up significantly after about 2 months of taking red yeast rice. I hadn’t told my MD about taking it, and he freaked at the enzymes. I confessed, and promised to lay off for a month or so, and we’d re-test. That’s coming up in a week or two, and we’ll see if the numbers are more reasonable. (It is likely that I have lung cancer, and part of my handling of it is to deny it glucose and cholesterol. I’ve absolutely bombed my A1C with berberine and metformin, and was hoping to avoid prescription statins by taking red yeast rice. I’ve also switched to a keto diet, and am taking other repurposed drugs and supplements.)

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Red yeast rice is the result of fermentation of white rice with a red yeast called *Monascus purpureus (MP). *

Red yeast rice has been used commercially to produce many valuable secondary metabolites (an intermediate or end-product of metabolism). One of these metabolite is monacolin K. Monacolin K is the same substance that is synthetically produced , and FDA approved as lovastatin, the active ingredient in the statin drug Mevacor®

However, some Monascus strains ( MP) could also produce **a toxic secondary metabolite ** ( mycotoxin) called citrinin. See ScienceDirect:

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/citrinin

Citrinin is highly toxic to the kidneys. It is classified as a nephrotoxin, with the kidney being its primary target organ.

Exposure to citrinin can lead to significant kidney damage, including necrosis of the distal tubule epithelium, degeneration of renal tubules, and impaired kidney function.

See National Library of Medicine

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7822436/

Particularly refer to Table 1 of this article which presents the worldwide incidence and occurrence of citrinin in different foods and supplements.

Citrinin’s toxicity extends beyond the kidneys, with documented effects on the liver, reproductive system, and bone marrow, and it has been associated with embryotoxic, fetotoxic, teratogenic, and carcinogenic outcomes in animal studies.

In a 2021 analysis of 37 red yeast rice products, ONLY ONE had citrinin levels below the maximum level currently set by the European Union. Also, four products that were contaminated with citrinin were labeled as “citrinin-free.”

See -NIH- National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health:

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/red-yeast-rice

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Sophos is correct and I hasten to add:

Cholesterol is not the cause of any pathophysiology in the human body. It is essential in cell walls, in nervous function, especially brain function, and performs a myriad of other functions in the human body. One’s levels are primarily determined by one’s genetics. There is no need to worry over a fatty alcohol level in the blood which is key to human survival.

Please do not poison yourself with a plant (rice) fermented or not just to please somebody else.

You are misinformed in fearing cholesterol.

Animal protein and animal fats are essential nutrients; carbs in any form (i.e. rice) are not essential and humans need cholesterol.

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I agree with you. In the past I took RYR to shut my MD up about cholesterol. More recently, I took it to help starve cancer (having read that it thrives on glucose and cholesterol). Having read all the bad things statins are accused of, I thought it might be a safer alternative. Otherwise I would not touch the stuff. Thanks for the information!

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:+1: “I don’t need to do anything, but eat well.”

Simple, powerful, and so often dismissed.