Supplement Detective

Summary: Red Yeast Rice Extract is a natural supplement that is found in nature that is effective at lowering total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.  It acts in the body the same way that the potent ’statin cholesterol-lowering medications do’.  Getting a standardized dose can be tough though.

Q: I’ve got high cholesterol and I’ve been on statins in the past.  While I’ve had decent results I’m frankly a little concerned about the side effects of statins and looked into other, more natural, and hopefully safer options.  One of the ones that I came across was red yeast rice extract.  Will it really lower cholesterol?

A: Red yeast rice, just as the name implies, is the product of yeast grown on rice and is actually used in the diet in many Asian countries.

There are a lot of people – maybe even you – who might be looking for viable alternatives to expensive and sometimes dangerous prescription drugs to lower cholesterol.  As a pharmacist one of the first natural products I was told about was Red Yeast Rice Extract.  This is what my research has shown.

Lowering Cholesterol

First of all, YES.  Red yeast rice extract can lower cholesterol levels.  And that’s understandable, especially when you consider that red yeast rice extract actually contains a substance called ‘monacolin K’.

Monacolin K is a potent inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase.  That is the same enzyme that is blocked by all the popular ’statin’ drugs.  Actually, monacolin K was the motivation behind the cholesterol-lowering drug Mevacor® (lovastatin) by Merck.

Because of that a few years ago the popular red yeast rice extract product called Cholestin® was going gangbusters.  Of course, there was a court battle over whether red yeast rice extract was actually a ‘drug’ or a ’supplement’.

In my mind, it was simply a way for the drug company to keep profiting from a product it had found in nature.  Frankly, I don’t care what they consider Cholestin, or red yeast rice extract.  The bottom line is, does it work?

And from the evidence that we have to this point it is clear that red yeast rice extract can lower cholesterol.  In fact, it can lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.  So, it’s perfect…right?

Not quite.

Two problems

First of all, the “Cholesterol Theory” – as it is called – is faulty in my opinion.  So, before you start thinking about lowering cholesterol you should also start thinking first about limiting inflammation in your body which is really what needs to happen before cholesterol starts clogging your arteries anyways.

Secondly, there has been some legitimate concern over the standardization of of red yeast rice extracts.  What that means is that because of the legal battle over certain brand names of red yeast rice extract a lot of folks resort to ordering the product from questionable sources.

When that happens it’s tough to know whether or not you are getting a quality product that actually contains what it claims to.

However, if you are getting a quality product I don’t see any information or evidence to suggest that you are wasting your money.  Red yeast rice extract clearly works for lowering cholesterol and acts in the same way as our most potent cholesterol lowering medications.