Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Red Yeast benefits Patients Intolerant of Statin Drugs

by | Jan 19, 2016 | 2013, Blood Lipids, Cardiovascular Health, Mediterranean Diet, Red Yeast Rice

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Red yeast rice in addition to a Mediterranean Diet produced a 15.45% decrease in total cholesterol levels and a 21.02% decrease in LDL cholesterol.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), high cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease which costs our healthcare system $448 billion each year and affects more than 81 million Americans (1). The NIH cites “high cholesterol” as greater than 240 mg/dL, 200-239 mg/dL as “borderline high”, and below 200 mg/dL as “desirable” (2).

The most common medical treatment for high cholesterol is statin drugs, with 57 million prescriptions given for the statin drug Lipitor alone (3). But statin drugs may cause minor health problems (like depleting vitamin D levels (4)) as well as serious health problems like muscle and liver damage (5, 6). Now research (7) suggests that following the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with Red Yeast Rice may improve cholesterol health when statin drugs are not an option.

In the study, 171 patients (71 men, 100 women between the ages of 43 and 62; 90 patients with type 2 diabetes and 81 patients with a blood lipid issue called “dyslipidemia” (total cholesterol above 200 mg/dL and LDL cholesterol above 130 mg/dL) were split into 3 groups for 24 weeks:

  • Group 1: 46 type 2 diabetic patients treated with the Mediterranean diet alone where the dietary goals were to consume between 1500-1800 calories per day with 25-30% of calories from fat, 45-50% carbohydrate, and 15-20% of calories from protein.
  • Group 2: 44 type 2 diabetic patients treated with the Mediterranean diet supplemented with 200 milligrams of red yeast rice per day.
  • Group 3: 38 dyslipidemic subjects treated with the Mediterranean diet alone.
  • Group 4: 43 dyslipidemic patients treated with Mediterranean diet plus red yeast rice.

Finally, each of the patients had discontinued at least one statin because of muscle pain and the muscle pain stopped once the statin was discontinued.

At the end of 24 weeks, the addition of red yeast rice proved to be a significant factor in both total and LDL cholesterol levels. Specifically, in the diabetes group, supplementing with red yeast rice in addition to following the Mediterranean Diet produced a 15.45% decrease in total cholesterol levels (234.80 to 198.52 mg/dL) compared to a 4.65% decrease (231.13 to 220.38 mg/dL, p < 0.001) in those only following the Mediterranean diet. For LDL cholesterol levels in the diabetic patients, the red yeast rice supplementation produced a 21.02% decrease (148.72 to 117.45 mg/dL) compared to a 7.34% decrease in those following only the Mediterranean Diet (149.07 to 138.12 mg/dL,p < 0.01).

For the dyslipidemic patients, red yeast rice supplementation decreased total cholesterol levels by 16.94% (275.81 to 229.08 mg/dL) compared to an 11.96% decrease in the Mediterranean diet only group (251.37 to 221.3 mg/dL, p < 0.001). For LDL cholesterol, those in the red yeast rice group saw a 22% decrease (188.98 to 147.40 mg/dL) compared to a 12.47% decrease (168.23 to 147.25 mg/dL, p < 0.05).

For the researchers, “Mediterranean diet counseling alone is effective in reducing LDL cholesterol levels in moderately hypercholesterolemic patients, but associating the Mediterranean diet with the administration of red yeast rice improved patients’ lipid profiles considerably more, also in patients with type 2 diabetes with statin intolerance.”

Source: Giovanni S, Silvia B, Eugenio R, Stefania F, Romina V, Lapolla Annunziata L. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2013, Article ID 743473, 7 pages: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/743473

© 2013 Sartore Giovanni et al. Creative Commons AttributionLicense

Click here to read the full text study.

Posted April 3, 2014.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

References:

  1. J. Ma, Y. Li, Q. Ye, J. Li, Y. Hua and D. Ju et al., Constituents of red yeast rice, a traditional Chinese food and medicine, J Agric Food Chem 48 (2000), pp. 5220–5225
  2.   R.J. Haval, Dietary supplement or drug? The case of cholestin, Am J Clin Nutr 69 (1999), pp. 175–176
  3.  D. Heber, I. Yip, J.M. Ashley, D.A. Elashoff, R.M. Elashoff and V.L. Go, Cholesterol-lowering effects of a proprietary Chinese red-yeast-rice dietary supplement, Am J Clin Nutr 69 (1999), pp. 231–236
  4. “Statin Drugs and Vitamin D Deficiency” posted January 19, 2010 on The Alliance for Natural Health Website
  5. Smogorzewski M. The myopathy of statins. J Ren Nutr. 2005;15(1):87-93
  6. Silver M, Langsjoen P, Szabo S, Patil H, Zelinger A. Effect of atorvastatin on left ventricular diastolic function and ability of coenzyme Q10 to reverse that dysfunction. Am J Cardiol. 2004;94(10):1306-1310
  7. Giovanni S.  Mediterranean Diet and Red Yeast Rice Supplementation for the Management of Hyperlipidemia in Statin-Intolerant Patients with or without Type 2 Diabetes.  Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:743473. doi: 10.1155/2013/743473. Epub 2013 Dec 23.