And continue to be.

Study published in the June 16, 2009 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine showing that a red rice yeast supplement worked as well to lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol as prescription statin drugs. The study included 62 patients, all of whom quit taking statins because of muscle pain, the most common side effect of these drugs. Half the 62 patients in the study received a red rice yeast supplement; the other half were given a placebo. After three months, average LDL levels among those taking the red rice yeast had dropped an average of 27 percent compared with six percent among the placebo group. All the participants were taught how to eat well, exercise and otherwise maintain a healthy lifestyle. Only seven percent of the patients taking the supplement developed muscle pain; among statin users, at least twenty percent experience muscle pain.

Red rice yeast (Monascus purpureus) is a natural source of statins, but unlike pharmaceutical products, it provides a mix of these compounds rather than a single one. The complex mixture interacts with the body more smoothly and is less likely to cause toxicity.

One active ingredient in red rice yeast extract, monacolin K, is the active component of the FDA approved statin Mevacor. The lead researcher of the new study, David Becker, M.D., of Chestnut Hill Cardiology in Pennsylvania, said that because the dose of monacolin K in the red rice yeast supplement used in the study was five times smaller than the amount in a typical Mevacor prescription, “something else is having a powerful lipid-lowering effect.”

"So the supplement will have fewer side effects by containing more impurities and less of the actual medicine?"

Don't be intentionally dense.

Example,

Red Yeast Rice contains a number of similar chemicals that are known as plant stanols. Each of them separately has theraputic action in reducing cholesterol much like statins from the drug companies. Statins and stanols have side effects, and those side effects differ some between the individual chemicals.

The Red Yeast Rice, because it has a combination of active chemicals with slightly different active ingredients and slightly different side effects, may produce the same benefit to a given patient, yet not produce side effects for that patient that the drug company product of a single chemical at a much higher dose might.

This is an example of my point. Your description of this mixture of natural stanols as impurities is a wild misunderstanding of what I said.

The drug company statin is what it is. It is a single chemical because it is not purified from a plant but rather synthesized. It has to be completely predictable and if a combination of chemicals was used, each one has to be approved separately and in combination. This would be punitively expensive to get through the FDA approval process.

So the drug company product is a single active ingredient not because that is better, but because to do anything else would be economically impractical.

New studies have found no connection between high cholesterol and heart disease.

This is a reference to a peer reviewed mega-study that appeared in major news not too long ago.

www.medlife.com/blog/cholesterol-heart-disease-study-shows-no-connection/

In the article it notes that although there are actually no solid studies to support cholesterol causing heart disease, most medical practitioners belief that it does.

The article suggests that because it has been accepted to be true for so long, it will take more studies to change opinions. This study covered 70,000 patients.

"Actual medicine is bound to have a greater chance of unintended consequences simply as a result of its mechanism of action, or effectiveness. "

As with most things, this is not always true. There are supplements that work as well as, or better than the popular prescriptions, and supplements that have fewer side effects that them.

In some cases, the way they work may be similar, but the prescription is one of the active chemicals in the supplement, in higher concentration that present in the supplement. Sometimes the supplement will have fewer side effects due to it being a number of active ingredients in lower concentration as opposed to a single on in high concentration.

As with most things in life, it depends.

If you stick with it for 8 weeks, you might find you like it. Then the question is .... Why Stop?

I get mine from Amazon, NOW Hawthorn Extract and Puritans Pride Red Yeast Rice.

Just for interest,

I have a great doctor. My cholesterol was borderline high along with my blood pressure. She said "I am going to write you a prescription for a statin for the Cholesterol and a med for the BP."

I said "no, we are not going to do that" what are the other choices. And that is when she suggested the things I passed on to you ... that worked well by the way.

She also told me, that doctors (at least in my state) HAVE to suggest treatment as recommended by the AMA guidelines or they could lose their license. Once I say, "nope, not doing that, what else can I do" she can suggest other things .... including what she might have preferred to suggest in the first place.

So, even if your Doctor is aware of the studies showing that Cholesterol is not that big a deal for example, he may feel compelled to push you into meds anyway to protect his license. You gotta inform yourself and push them a bit sometimes to get the best care!

Walmart? Amazon? LOL

Seems like they sell everything else!

Your blood sugar is a complex combination of issues. You may be able to address it with some combination of the following.

-Take Cinnamon supplements (Increases the
body's ability to regulate sugar)
- Avoid foods with sugar and simple carbs
- When you eat carbs, eat them with lots of
fiber as it slows the absorbtion of sugar
(from carbs)
- If you want more calories eat healthy fats
including dairy
- And by the way, Red Yeast Rice supplements
can reduce cholesterol. However, the latest
studies show no correlation between heart
disease, strokes and cholesterol.

Ragu has a new pasta sauce made with olive oil instead of soybean oil. Is't that what they used in the "old days"?