Red Yeast Rice, anybody use it
 

Its supposed to lower your colesterol, a buddy and his wife use it and it works for them. Anybody else try it?
Finn

A coworker and her husband have been eating vegan for about 9 months now, massive drop in cholesterol numbers for both of them.

Was on Symvistatin. Was not tolerating it well. Massive bloat, muscle ache, chronic fatigue. Generally felt like crap.

Went off it and within a week felt 1000 x's better and the bloat subsided to the point that my wife looked at me and asked how I lost so much weight so quick. She claims I looked pregnant before.

My MIL takes Red Yeast and it's working for her. I switched to it but the bloat came back.

I've upped my Omega 3 by a bunch.

Best to take that at an evening meal, your body does require some fat intake for Omega 3 to be most effective.

Had a doc recommend Cillium. Will try that next.

Am watching the diet as well.

Red Rice Yeast has a common statin in it. I tried it and it made marginal difference. Someone pointed out that the dosage is not controlled and one brand could be small and one brand could be large in dosage. I have a bunch of other strategies and leave the statins to the RX drugs.

Not enough time to give the full state of the art thought on this. Cholesterol control is a big thing for me.
Larry

^^
Right. Red rice yeast works in a very similar way to a statin. So IMO not much different than taking Lipitor in terms of possible side effects.

Lipitor has been clinically proven to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke and now there is some evidence it may greatly reduce your chance of getting prostate cancer. So as much as I'd like to find a cheap, natural alternative I'm just sticking with Lipitor.

Does anyone simply eat it as rice?

Yes, it contains a statin (which is the active ingredient in prescriptions like Lipitor, etc) so for most people it will lower cholesterol. But since it is unregulated, you don't know what statin dose you are getting and it goes up and down with each lot/brand.

If you are already taking a statin, and also take red yeast, it might double or even triple the statin dose you are receiving.

Deaths have been reported from rhabdomyalisis and kidney failure; and liver failure from statins- especially when the proper lab tests are not monitored regularly, as would be the case of someone taking red yeast and not knowing what is in it or the risk.

In my opinion, it should be either regulated by the FDA or completely pulled from the market.