Saw my endo today and she suggested Red Yeast Rice to help lower my cholesterol . Total is 194 so I’m not too concerned about it. Any pros or cons about it? I don’t want to start something new without information.
My A1c was 6.7 so she was happy about that.
My mother has been taking red yeast supplements to help her lipids & it’s helped her quite a bit. She researched it to find a reputable brand. I’ll find out what brand she’s using because she tried several with no effect.
Red yeast is a natural statin, btw.
So you have lower than average total cholesterol and you should reduce your cholesterol because? I’m not clear that there is any evidence that women have any health or mortality risks associated with cholesterol levels. So why would you treat something for which there is no benefit? Gerri did point out to you that Red yeast is a natural statin. We know that a disturbingly large proportion of statin medication users suffer side effects, some of those side effects may well also occur in red yeast. So there is a balance of risk and benefit on both sides of the equation with a huge amount of uncertainty thrown in to make it all crystal clear.
I’m glad the red yeast has helped your mother change her lipids, but has it really helped her? It is really hard to have confidence in what to do in these sorts of matters when there is such flawed and conflicting information.
My mother is certain it helped because her test results improved. She took it for months. She has plaque, history of heart disease in our family & she has intermittent high blood pressure & sees her cardiologist regularly (she’s in her 80’s).
I have taken it off & on the past couple years. It really did help my cholesterol. My LDL was in the130s and came down to 100. My HDL was in the 70s and went up over 100. Like BSC mentioned, it can have side effects. I did take a prescription statin for a few days and had all the aches that you get from statins but don’t have a problem with the red yeast rice. When my PCP saw my labs, she asked if she could make a copy, black out my name & show her other patients.
Thanks for the replies. I have a hard time wanting to take it when my cholesterol isn’t bad. I guess my LDL is too high but I’m afraid of side effects. The statin I was on gave me horrible PVCs. Maybe I’ll use a low dose if Gerri can find out the right brand.