Natural treatment tops statin for cholesterol
Big Pharma wants you to think there's no way off the statin train... but I beg to differ.
Most people can control cholesterol levels through lifestyle changes, but if you've had no luck, you still don't need to turn to those drugs. One new study shows how a perfectly natural treatment used for centuries beat a common statin.
It's called red yeast rice. It was actually banned once because it contains a natural version of a common statin (no wonder it works so well). But it's also more effective, safer and comes with a lower risk of side effects than Big Pharma's synthetic alternatives.
Researchers looked at 43 adults who had tried statins, but stopped taking them because of that infamous muscle pain -- one of the main side effects of these drugs. Some were given 2400mg of red yeast rice a day for 12 weeks, while the patients who drew the short straw got the drug pravastatin for the same period.
Those who took red yeast rice saw a 30 percent drop in LDL cholesterol levels (that's the bad stuff), while those on the drug saw a 27 percent drop, according to the study published in the American Journal of Cardiology.
But the good news doesn't stop there: 9 percent of those on meds had to stop due to those notorious muscle problems... versus just 5 percent in the red yeast rice group.
No wonder Big Pharma's been trying to replicate this stuff for years!
Too bad they can't sell the real thing. Well, they can -- but they're not interested. That's because you can't patent a natural substance -- and if you can't patent it, you can't make a big profit off it.
But they have pulled a few tricks to try to keep this natural competitor out of your store... including that ban I mentioned earlier.
Get this -- Big Pharma's FDA pals considered red yeast rice "contaminated" with a drug since it contains a natural version of a statin. That's a little like saying tomatoes have been contaminated with red.
Just remember: the real key to cholesterol control isn't in a pill, no matter what Big Pharma tells you. It's in your lifestyle. If you commit to a better diet and steady exercise, you'll see the kind of changes that'll keep you off the drug train for good.
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Edward Martin writes House Calls, a daily letter chronicling the most cutting-edge alternative methods for beating diabetes and cancer, to the latest FDA foul-ups and Big Pharma conspiracies.
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Comments
Chris John
Thanks for this informative article. As far as possible I avoid taking drugs. I prefer to make lifestyle changes like exercise, weight management, low-sodium diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables along with an adequate fiber intake. Omega -3s have also been well-researched for their role in regulating normal cholesterol levels so I take a regular dose through pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplements. These, or any other similar quality fish oil supplements, have the highest purity and potency of DHA and EPA.
Jill
Big Pharma is Big Pharma and they pushed the logic of lowering LDL. It seems that there are many natural ways to lower LDL (as advertised or "researched" for some natural products) without statin analogues as red yeast rice.
However, I think that the real issue is how to raise HDL i.e. to work on the HDL/LDL ratio. There is not much sense in lowering LDL if HDL is lower than normal. I believe that HDL and inflammations are directly and inversely related and high LDL is just another marker for the already bad situation of low HDL.
In other words, I don't believe that THE SYMPTOMS (cholesterols: HDL, LDL, triglycerides, total...) are THE REASONS for any disease (cardiovascular or other), just as the thicker mucus is not the reason for an influenza. In the same analogy, very high cholesterol can be dangerous on its own, just as very thick mucus. Lowering the (total) cholesterol or thinning the mucus can definitely protect from fatal outcome and by the way make one feel a bit better, but it is not the cure.
Medicine is very empirical, it certainly is not mathematics (it may well be its opposite), so pushing something on statistics is crime, by my opinion. To really accept something as a cure, I need the total metabolic algorithm of the cure. Statins are pushed with the mentioned false logic and are morally protected with statistics.
Anonymous
It is absurd to think cholesterol is a threat, every one else other than logical thinkers assumes that cholesterol is the culprit behind many illnesses, I agree with many experts that cholesterol is a much needed nutrient and a person can have high total cholesterol, this is why the liver is a cholesterol producing machine, when you are on cholesterol lowering drugs you are fighting against your liver and when you do this you are raising an amino acid which is the culprit behind clogged arteries, and no one except a few experts talk about this, you can have all the cholesterol and you will be healthy, if, that is if you control this amino acid. JAM
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