By David Liu PHD

Friday Oct 5, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking red yeast rice as a dietary supplement may help heart disease patients with dyslipidemia or high cholesterol and blood fat triglycerides, according to a review published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Qinghua Shang of Beijing University in Beijing China and colleagues conducted the review and found evidence to suggest that an extract prepared from red yeast rice can help reduce risk of all case deaths, and death from coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and revascularization.

The researchers reviewed 22 randomized clinical trial studies on Xuezhikang, a red yeast rice extract as a treatment for coronary heart disease coupled with dyslipidemia or high cholesterol and triglycerides to see how the dietary supplement could affect the outcome of the disease.

Taking the dietary supplement reduced death risk in coronary heart disease patients with high cholesterol and triglycerides, compared with those who did not take the supplement.

The red yeast rice extract was found to effectively lower total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density llipoprotein cholesterol, compared to those who did not take the dietary supplement or took inositol nicotinate, which has a similar effect as statins.

Xuezhikang also raised high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), which is considered a benefit, compared to placebo or no intervention.

While this red yeast rice preparation was found highly effective at preventing deaths from coronary heart disease through lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, it was also found to be very safe and it caused no side effects when taken as the dietary supplement.

Red yeast rice has been known to lower cholesterol very effectively, even compared to statins, which are known to be effective in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease.  With statins, the only problem is its side effects.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.  Xuezhikang can be a good preventative against the disease.