Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
When I have a question about a topic related to health, I write it down on whatever is handy. The back of an envelope. An old receipt. One of the many notebooks I’ve purchased for just this purpose. I’ve tried to use my phone with limited success. But the only place that really works for me is the wall in my office. Only today, because I changed my office to a room in the house without a whiteboard painted on one wall, it’s the closet mirrors in my office. I thought it was time to answer those questions, and because they all pertain to health and fitness, I’d share the answers with you. Here we go.
First up: can red yeast rice (RYR) as a dietary supplement actually lower cholesterol? I used to get that question a lot about 15 years ago. I looked up the data, wrote about it, and tucked it away. The answer was yes—but. What does that mean? Time to review it again in case you’ve had the question because your doctor wants you to take a statin medication to lower your serum cholesterol.
Red yeast rice is actually not a yeast. It is a mold that is produced by the fermentation of a fungus in the Monascus family that grows on, as you may have guessed, red rice. Based on information from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, the genera M. purpureus is technically a mold--a fungus that produces filaments that include many cells rather than a yeast, a single-celled fungus. From a marketing perspective, you can understand why supplement manufacturer’s wanted to use red yeast rice rather than red mold rice.
Did RYR as a supplement work to lower cholesterol? Yes based on several studies done in the in the late 1990s. There was only one problem. The RYR contained monacolin K, a by-product of fermenting the mold on the red rice. Why is that a problem? Because monacolin K is chemically identical to lovastatin, a pharmaceutical that lowers cholesterol. While no one wants to take medications any more than they have to, the RYR was a “natural” alternative.
Only it really wasn’t because the amounts of Monacolin K (MK) varied depending on the exact type of monascus mold used. It could be high enough to mimic the actual medication or it could have none. You wouldn’t know because it was not a standardized extract.
Side-bar. What is a SE? If you want to know the amount of active ingredient in a dietary supplement from an herb or in this case a mold, manufacturer’s state on the nutrition facts label the exact amount of the active part of the plant extract, is in the serving. For example, one could buy turmeric in bulk, stuff it in capsules, and sell it as turmeric. But the active ingredients are actually the type and amount of curcuminoids in the turmeric. Without a standardized extract, you may have a lot of the active substance or none. So always check the labels for the amount of the actual active ingredient when you buy supplements.
Back to RYR. As a result, the FDA declared that RYR could not be sold in the US because of the lack of information on the amount of MK in the supplements and because lovastatin had already been approved as a drug. Mostly the later.
The next logical step would be to see if the FDA set a limit to the amount of MK allowable in RYR products in the US. They have not, as they consider it a drug that shouldn’t be sold in the US at all. You can still find RYR as a dietary supplement but it should not contain enough MK to really do anything to lower cholesterol. On the other hand, the European equivalent of the FDA has set a limit of no more than 3 mg of MK in a daily serving.
A quick search of RYR products show that you can get RYR with MK from European countries that is below the 3 mg per day limit. I don’t think it’s worth it due to the expense and technically breaking the law. Lovastatin is chemically identical to MK. Depending on your prescription plan, you can get a standardized dose per day of the same thing for as little as free every month. Chemically identical, people.
In this case, it makes no sense to obtain a product in the US that may or may not have MK in it and which could actually contain lovastatin in it as product analytics have shown. By the way, the side effects from both forms are identical with muscle pain and the like. Doesn’t happen to most people but it can happen. And that’s the deal with RYR. If you don’t want a medication, change your lifestyle to naturally lower your cholesterol.
Let’s make a hard turn here to tell you about the wandering women. Several years ago, while doing intervals up one of my favorite hills, I happened upon an elderly woman that looked confused about where she was. I stopped and she told me she didn’t remember where she lived. We got that straightened out but what was more alarming was that she had just been released from the hospital after having a cardiac event. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. She also had left her cell phone at home. If an emergency occurred, she could have been in trouble.
I always carry my cell phone with me if I’m going to workout in the neighborhood, a trail, or even a park. The reason is that my DILy made me promise I would. Well that and what happened when I went for a run in SC near their home.
We visited my stepson and his wife so often; I had set routes to run that included a display of logs around a sign for a hair salon. I always used those logs—actually railroad ties—to stretch my calves. Except that this particular time, as I was stretching my calves, they moved, and I fell forward against some nails. My chest and throat met those rusty old nails sticking out of the sides of the sign up close and personal. I had pretty good scratches in my chest right through the tank top I was wearing. But of more concern was that one nail hit close to the lower part of my throat. I was lucky it didn’t pierce my trachea, but it could have. I had a hoarse voice for several days. I finished my run but my DILy made me promise that I would always take my cell phone with me when I run in SC or anywhere. Unless it’s the loop right outside my home, where there are always people home or driving out of the area, I always take my cell phone with me. That’s more of a problem now that they weigh what seems like 5 pounds but I find a way. The good old fanny pack I used when I ran road races.
Whether it’s you or someone you care about, take your cell phone with you. Nothing like that incident happened since—and it’s been years—but if something happened and I was conscious, I can call for help. If I’m gone too long, I can be found with the locator service on the phone. So do yourself a favor—don’t leave home without it.
Final mirror thought for this episode. If you haven’t already done it, join the All of Us research program. I did it years ago. It’s a research program to get health data on one million Americans. You answer some questions, they do some basic anthropomorphic and health tests and draw some blood and you’re in. I’ve gotten back some interesting genetic information including why caffeine doesn’t bother me before bed and why I hate cilantro. I know we’re all taking our personal information seriously and we should. But being a part of this project will help look for solutions for problems of many diseases as well as aging itself. If you haven’t done it, consider doing it. Just search for All of US in your browser and you should be able to find all the details including the security of the data. I just checked the website and it’s up and running. Be a part of something bigger than yourself.
That’s it for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the like button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
