A short blog about the various Red Yeast Rice products which are sometimes promoted as being "natural" alternatives to statins. Many are available such as this:
Red Yeast Rice Vegetable Capsules
https://www.solgar.com/products/red-yeast-rice-vegetable-capsules/
This specific product is just used as an example and there is no reason to think it anything other than as described.
The extract below gives an introduction to the issue. (This is a USA link but most of the decent links are on USA sites.)
Red Yeast Rice: What You Need To Know
What is red yeast rice?
Red yeast rice is produced by fermentation of a yeast on rice. The yeast is usually Monascus purpureus.
Depending on the yeast strain used and the conditions of fermentation, the yeast can enrich the rice with substances known as monacolins, including monacolin K. Monacolin K is structurally identical to the medicine lovastatin.
Lovastatin, like other statin drugs, helps slow the production of cholesterol in the body to decrease the amount of cholesterol that may build up on the walls of arteries and block blood flow to the heart, brain, and other parts of the body. Statin drugs are used together with diet, weight loss, and exercise to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Red yeast rice comes in the forms of food, traditional Chinese medicine, dietary supplements, and other products.
How much monacolin K is in red yeast rice?
Traditional red yeast rice may contain trace amounts of monacolin K (lovastatin).
Some
commercial red yeast rice products contain very little or no detectable
monacolin K. Other products, however, have been found to contain large
amounts of monacolin K. Some researchers reported that commercial
lovastatin is illegally added to some red yeast rice products.
It’s impossible for consumers to know the amount of monacolin K in red yeast rice products. Levels of monacolin K and lovastatin are not usually included on product labels. A 2017 review analyzed 28 brands of red yeast rice products from mainstream retailers in the United States, and none of the products included the quantity of monacolin K on the label. Monacolin K was not detected in two brands, and in the 26 brands that contained monacolin K, the quantity ranged more than 60-fold, from 0.09 to 5.48 mg per 1,200 mg of red yeast rice.
Rest of article here:
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/red-yeast-rice
In other words, if it works, it probably contains the same substance as lovastatin. But in an uncertain dose and of unclear origin.
In
general, statins should not be taken while actually hypothyroid. And
many question whether they can ever be safe in someone with a thyroid
issue.
For posting in HealthUnlocked, copy and paste the entire dark red text below this sentence.
[i][b]helvella - Red Yeast Rice[/b]
A short discussion about the claims for "natural" red yeast rice as an alternative to statins.
Last updated 10/02/2025[/i]
Link to blog:
https://helvella.blogspot.com/p/helvella-red-yeast-rice.html
If you find anything incorrect, misleading, typos, links that don’t work, etc., please let me know. Go to my profile and use the contact details there.
