More and more patients come in telling me they prefer to take Red Rice Yeast Extract instead of statins
They seem surprised when I show them the chemical structure of the active cholesterol-lowering compound in Red Rice Yeast Extract 
They say to me, "but that is the structure of lovastatin."
And I say, "exactly"
And I say, "exactly"
Not everyone knows that Monocalin K is lovastatin, full stop and that Monocalin K is the active cholesterol lowering compound in most red rice yeast extracts
nccih.nih.gov/health/redyeas…
nccih.nih.gov/health/redyeas…
But of course the qualifier "most" is the issue. We have very little idea what is in these unregulated supplements and we have a very good idea what is in a statin pill
In the scheme of things, $20M is not a huge sum, but some of these supplements are pretty expensive and people don't really know what they are getting
gnc.com/red-yeast-rice…
gnc.com/red-yeast-rice…
I also think it is interesting that while I have many patients taking RRYE, I have never heard one complain of any side effects- none...
I have never told someone that they *cannot* take red rice yeast extract to lower their cholesterol, but I have found that telling this story makes it easier for them to come to the conclusion that they should instead just take a statin
wow!
