TUESDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- Chinese red yeast rice, a dietary supplement made by fermenting the yeast Monascus purpureus over rice, modestly lowers cholesterol in patients intolerant to statins, according to research published in the March 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.
Carmelo V. Venero, M.D., from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, and colleagues reviewed the cases of 25 patients who were treated with Chinese red yeast rice for at least four weeks due to intolerance to daily statins (myalgias, gastrointestinal intolerance, elevated alanine aminotransferase levels).
The researchers found that the patients had significant decreases in total cholesterol (15 percent) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (21 percent) during a mean of 74 days of treatment. The treatment was tolerated in 92 percent of patients, and 56 percent of patients achieved their LDL cholesterol goals. In the 17 patients unable to tolerate daily statins due to myalgias, there were significant decreases in total cholesterol (13 percent) and LDL cholesterol (19 percent).
"In conclusion, red yeast rice modestly decreased total and LDL cholesterol, was well-tolerated, and was an acceptable alternative in patients intolerant of other lipid-lowering medications," Venero and colleagues write.
Several authors reported consulting and financial relationships with pharmaceutical and device companies.
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