A friend of my wife has successfully lowered her cholesterol from 5 to 2 by taking Red Yeast Rice supplements. This appears to be the source from which statins were developed. So, if you are interested in stations without a prescription, this appears to be how to do it. Does anyone here take it?
Please note the interaction with GFJ and others as listed in the article below.
That’s an interesting thought. There are arguments about statins and what they do is reduce cholesterol in the round not just LDL. However, on the basis of this post I have bought some and will give it a shot some time. As I do weekly blood tests it would add another data point.
Thank you! Please let us know how it affects your cholesterol! 
What are the units for those cholesterol numbers? I don’t recognize single digit cholesterol.
Why not take a statin instead? Same action. Same side effects. Cheap if you are insured. Better dose control.
The units are mmol/L. That’s what we use in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, insurance does not cover prescriptions so you must pay for drugs yourself. However if you have a problem, there is free healthcare available through the public system. Unfortunately it works on a treatment and not a prevention principle, so treating marginally high cholesterol is not done. I guess I could order some generics from India.
Spacedoc = N1
“The analysis included 19 518 older adults followed during 10 years (median = 9.7 y). All-cause mortality rates were 34% lower among those who had adhered to statin treatment, compared with those who had not (hazard ratio [HR] = .66; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .56-.79). Adherence to statins was also associated with fewer atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events (HR = .80; 95% CI = .71-.81). The benefit of statin use did not diminish among beyond age 75 and was evident for both women and men.”
The importance of reducing inflammation may be more important as we get older.
Here is a much newer study of 19,518 people. Yes, the use of statins is considered controversial by some, but not by me.
To be fair, I have flip-flopped on this in the past, but since I am past age 75, I will continue with my low-dose statin.
https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jgs.16060
What is the proper ratio of CoQ10 to RYR Red Yeast Rice?
I think there is quite a bit of evidence that effective longevity protocols do result in slightly higher cholesterol levels. I cannot pull together all of the papers on this, but it does seem to fly as a concept. Using some form of intervention to direct Acetyl-CoA away from cholesterol manufacture also seems to help.
I don’t know what the “proper ratio” is, but I have bought Dulac Red Yeast Rice which claims to have 10 mg of Monacolin K (aka Lovastatin) in with each 200mg of Red Rice Ferrmentate to which they add 10mg of CoQ and 100mg of Fenugreek Seed Powder. AFAIK the Fenugreek is also supposed to help with lipids, but I have not read up on it.
Whether this is a good ratio or now or how accurate the contents are I cannot comment.
Incidentally I do want to try this on a 12 hourly basis (it has quite a short half life) for a few days around one of my coming blood tests, but I am currently in the middle of stabilising the outcome of a previous test so it may not be this week.
I really do wish to see whether I can identify any outcome changes from a statin and this seems the best candidate. (partially because it is non-prescription and hence less hassle to get. I was prescribed Statins 19 years ago, but stopped taking them. My view now is that there may be a merit in cycling statins, but I am not persuaded about chronic use.
Red yeast rice is just a naturally occurring source of lovastatin.
Arguing for RYR while simultaneously knocking cholesterol as a contributer to heart disease is a direct contradiction.
I don’t use red yeast rice supplements - pretty difficult to ensure quality and truly citrinin free. They don’t advertise lovastatin/“monacolin K” content due to a weird interpretation of FDA rules - not to mention lovastatin is affected by CYP3A4i
The FDA requires US companies to remove the cholesterol lowering ingredient in red yeast rice supplements. Make sure you buy RYR from somewhere other than the USA otherwise you are wasting your money.
It can still has some naturally occurring lovastatin actually even if it’s from the US. I recall seeing about 7.5 mg in one serving in some third party testing data once. Manufacturers just can’t add additional lovastatin to it and the amount of lovastatin cannot appear on the label.
Outside of the US, I suspect some companies add additional lovastatin. Difficult to figure out dosing since it’s highly, highly variable.
The quality generally is piss poor though. Citrinin-free on the label doesn’t even come close to guaranteeing citrinin free. Wouldn’t gamble my kidneys on a well known mycotoxin.
“No product [out of 101 products] could be confirmed as passing any independent laboratory verification testing.”
Source?
Low LDL is often confounded with low-albumin => this makes low LDL seemingly reduce mortality, but once you control for albumin status…
LDL is non-significantly (very weakly) associated with lower epigenetic age, but again I wonder about whether or not they adjusted for albumin status
FDA hasn’t really enforced this. Consumerlab’s latest test show that Cholestene reliably contains 3.5mg of lovastatin per capsule and 0 citrinin; however, I don’t see a benefit in paying for this supplement that has cyp 3a4 interactions when you could get a more effective, safer and cheaper statin drug through medical insurance (low dose rosuvastatin, for instance).
Unfortunately in Hong Kong, where I live, drugs are not covered by insurance.