Chinese red yeast rice reduces repeat heart attacks/mortality rates

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Public release date: 9-Jun-2008

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/tju-ras060508.php

Contact: Rick Cushman

richard.cushman@...

Jefferson University

Study finds Chinese food good for your heart

Chinese red yeast rice reduces repeat heart attacks/mortality rates

(PHILADELPHIA) – A clinical study on patients who have suffered a heart

attack found that a partially purified extract of Chinese red yeast

rice, Xuezhikang (XZK), reduced the risk of repeat heart attacks by 45%,

revascularization (bypass surgery/angioplasty), cardiovascular mortality

and total mortality by one-third and cancer mortality by two-thirds. The

multicenter, randomized, double-blind study, was conducted on almost

5,000 patients, ranging in age from 18-70 over a five-year period at

over 60 hospitals in the People's Republic of China. Corresponding

author M. Capuzzi, M.D., Ph.D, director of the Cardiovascular

Disease Prevention Program at Jefferson's Myrna Brind Center of

Integrative Medicine and Zonliang Lu, M.D., Ph.D, from the Fuwai

Hospital at the Chinese Academy of Medical Science report their findings

in the June 15th edition of the American Journal of Cardiology.

" It's very exciting because this is a natural product and had very few

adverse side effects including no abnormal blood changes, " said Capuzzi.

" People in the Far East have been taking Chinese red yeast rice as food

for thousands of years, but no one has ever studied it clinically in a

double-blind manner with a purified product against a placebo group

until now and we are pleased with the results. However, people in the

United States should know that the commercially available

over-the-counter supplement found in your average health food store is

not what was studied here. Those over-the-counter supplements are not

regulated, so exact amounts of active ingredient are unknown and their

efficacy has not been studied yet. "

The study looked at patients who had suffered a heart attack in the

previous year. Study participants were given two-300-milligram XZK

capsules or a placebo and tracked over a five-year period. The XZK

capsules contained a combination of lovastatin, lovastatin hydroxyl

acid, ergosterol and other components.

" I think it is surprising that a natural product like XZK would have

this great an effect, " said Capuzzi. " If further testing and study prove

true, my hope is that XZK becomes an important therapeutic agent to

treat cardiovascular disorders and in the prevention of disease whether

someone has had a heart attack or not. But it is important to recognize

the fact we do not know exactly how Chinese red yeast rice works. The

exact ingredients from the XZK capsules have not been isolated and

studied yet. Still the results were so profound, even out performing

statins prescribed in numerous western populations, that further study

should certainly be investigated. "

###

The study was sponsored by Beijing Peking University WBL Biotech Co. Ltd

(WPU), in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Dr. Capuzzi has no

financial interest in this company.

--

ne Holden, MS, RD

" Ask the Parkinson Dietitian " http://www.parkinson.org/

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