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Cardiac Rehabilitation

Red yeast rice

05/19/2008 11:54AM

Question:

Is red yeast rice a viable alternative to statin therapy? And what about plant sterols/stanols?

Answer:

Red rice yeast contains a statin, lovastatin, so needs liver tests to follow for risk of liver damage. Plant sterols are useful, but not reliable.

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Response by:

The Ohio State University Glen F. Aukerman, MD
Professor
OSU Center for Integrative Medicine
Department of Family Medicine
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University
Glen F. Aukerman, MD