Red Yeast Rice contains Lovastatin

The findings on heart disease are not very surprising. Red yeast rice contains lovastatin - a cholesterol lowering drug. Unfortunately the full scientific paper is only available to print subscribers of the American Journal of Cardiology at present but from the information provided in the abstract the researchers have not proved that the extract of red yeast rice used was "more effective than statins" because they didn't compare it with a statin, just with a placebo. It may be more effective, it may be safer and it may be cheaper but we don't know yet.

What we can say is that going out and eating a lot of Chinese take-aways and Peking Duck in the hope of protecting ourselves against heart disease is going to be counterproductive - all that fat and salt in the take-aways will do more harm!

Re the cancer claim - just too early to say.

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