More on Red Yeast Rice

Don't be confused. A new study shows that a Chinese food product, Xuezhikang, derived from rice is effective in reducing heart disease risk. The investigators studied 5000 men for 5 years and found an impressive forty-five percent reduction in heart disease in those on the 600mg/d supplement compared with the controls who received a placebo. The lead author, Dr David Capuzzi, explains in the NY Times that the compound used in this study referred to as red yeast rice is different from the red yeast rice extract available in U.S. Health food stores."This study,” Dr. Capuzzi said, “was done with a carefully constituted compound totally different from what is available over the counter.” The encouraging part of this study is that it demonstrates a powerful heart disease prevention effect from a natural food product in a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for medical research. The unfortunate part is that the authors refer to the substance tested with the same name as a widely available and potentially ineffective and toxic product. (See post here from January 2008). Hopefully this new compound will become available here soon; in the meantime we should avoid using red yeast rice.