Cholestin research
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Study by David Heber, MD/PhD, UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, showing an average 22% reduction in LDL-cholesterol concentration in subjects taking red yeast rice is published in the February issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Results were earlier presented by Heber at an April 1998 scientific conference ("The Tan Sheet" April 27, 1998, p. 14). The 12-week, placebo-controlled study involved 83 subjects. In an accompanying editorial entitled "Dietary Supplement or Drug? The Case of Cholestin," Richard Havel, University of California at San Francisco, notes no data are available on the short- or long-term toxicity of the individual statins in Cholestin except for lovastatin. Havel was a member of the scientific advisory board of Merck Therapeutic Institute from 1985 to 1990 and participated in clinical trials of lovastatin, marketed by Merck as the Rx cholesterol reducing drug Mevacor