Red yeast rice is an old Chinese favorite that colors or adds flavor to everything from pastries to Peking duck, but it has turned into a popular remedy for Americans looking for an alternative to cholesterol drugs. Indeed, Americans looking to improve their health pay tens of millions of dollars for the product every year — yet it may not be money well spent.
A new study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine suggests a great deal of variation in the quantity of the active ingredient, known as monacolins, supplied in each serving of red yeast rice. Some of the 12 sample servings tested contained more than 11 milligrams of the monacolins, while others had just one-tenth of a milligram.
Another alarming discovery was the presence of citrinin in a third of the samples, a substance that has caused kidney failure in animals.
The authors of this report had already conducted studies on red yeast rice, finding that it did indeed lower LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol. Nonetheless, they expressed uneasiness about their most recent results.
“Our take on it is that red yeast rice, unlike a lot of unproven herbal products, really works,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Ram Y. Gordon, a cardiologist associated with University of Pennsylvania Health Systems, told The New York Times. “But because of what we found, there are inherent problems in saying that this is good for people.”
The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate red yeast rice, and has advised consumers against using the product to lower cholesterol.
