Chinese Cholesterol Control?

[Guest guest]

Chinese Cholesterol Control?

 

I am ordering red rice yeast supplement from a Canadian store. Can

you tell me what I should look for when purchasing this product? Is

it safe?

 

-- Leanne MacDonald

 

 

Answer (Published 10/01/2002)

 

 

I'm assuming that you're referring to red rice yeast extract, a

supplement that can help lower cholesterol and once was sold in the

United States under the name " Cholestin " . To give you a bit of

background,

 

in 2001 the FDA won a long legal battle to remove Cholestin from

the market on the grounds that its primary ingredient is lovastatin,

which had been approved as a prescription drug (the cholesterol-

lowering prescription medication Mevacor) before Cholestin was

introduced.

 

The FDA concluded that by marketing Cholestin, the manufacturer,

Pharmanex, Inc., was selling an unapproved drug.

 

In fact, there are several natural sources of " statin " drugs from

mushrooms and other fungi. Cholestin and its active components come

from a strain of red yeast cultivated on rice that has been used for

centuries in China as a natural food flavoring and coloring agent.

 

And it contains seven different statins, not just lovastatin. In my

experience, the natural mixture of compounds is less toxic (to the

liver and muscles) than isolated lovastatin.

 

Although Pharmanex no longer can sell Cholestin made

 

from red rice yeast extract in the United States, it can market the

supplement elsewhere in the world, including Canada.

 

If the red rice yeast supplement you're purchasing from your

Canadian source, is Cholestin and consists of red rice yeast, you

should be getting a product that can safely help lower cholesterol.

Be sure to check the label to verify that the product contains red

rice yeast extract.

 

I'm concerned that Pharmanex is still selling a product called

Cholestin in the U.S. with a changed formula.

 

It now contains policosanol from beeswax, which is not a statin and

is not as effective as a cholesterol-lowering agent.

 

People buying this version of Cholestin may think that they're

getting red rice yeast extract when, in fact, they're not.

 

Incidentally, the federal ban applies only to Cholestin. Other

brands of red rice yeast extract are still available in the U.S.,

although they haven't been clinically proven as was Cholestin, and

may not be as effective.

 

Dr. Andrew Weil

www.drweil.com