THURSDAY, Jan. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The alternative therapy red yeast rice performs comparably to the lipid-lowering drug pravastatin in reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in patients who had previously had to discontinue statin therapy because of muscle pain, according to a study in the Jan. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.
Steven C. Halbert, M.D., of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and colleagues randomized 43 adults with dyslipidemia, who previously had discontinued statin therapy because of myalgia, to 12-week blinded regimens of either red yeast rice (2,400 mg twice daily) or pravastatin (20 mg twice daily). The subjects in both groups also took part in a 12-week therapeutic lifestyle program. Primary outcomes were treatment stoppage because of myalgia and daily pain severity on the Brief Pain Inventory, and secondary outcomes were changes in muscle strength and plasma lipids.
The researchers found that LDL cholesterol levels decreased by 27 percent in the pravastatin group and by 30 percent in the red yeast rice group. Medication stoppage as the result of myalgia was 9 percent in the pravastatin group and 5 percent in the red yeast rice group. However, there was no significant difference in mean pain severity between the two groups and, at weeks four, eight and 12, no difference in muscle strength.
"In conclusion, red yeast rice was tolerated as well as pravastatin and achieved a comparable reduction of LDL cholesterol in a population previously intolerant to statins," the authors write.
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