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Red Alert: Study finds
Chinese food
good for your heart
Newswise — A clinical study
on patients who have suffered a heart attack
found that a partially purified extract of
Chinese red yeast rice, Xuezhikang (XZK),
reduced the risk of repeat heart attacks by
45%, revascularization (bypass
surgery/angioplasty), cardiovascular
mortality and total mortality by one-third
and cancer mortality by two-thirds.
The multicenter, randomized,
double-blind study, was conducted on almost
5,000 patients, ranging in age from 18-70
over a five-year period at over 60 hospitals
in the People’s Republic of China.
Corresponding author David M.
Capuzzi, M.D., Ph.D, director of the
Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program at
Jefferson’s Myrna Brind Center of
Integrative Medicine and Zonliang Lu, M.D.,
Ph.D, from the Fuwai Hospital at the Chinese
Academy of Medical Science report their
findings in the June 15th edition of the
American Journal of Cardiology.
“It’s very exciting because
this is a natural product and had very few
adverse side effects including no abnormal
blood changes,” said Capuzzi.
“People in the Far East have
been taking Chinese red yeast rice as food
for thousands of years, but no one has ever
studied it clinically in a double-blind
manner with a purified product against a
placebo group until now and we are pleased
with the results.
“However, people in the
United States should know that the
commercially available over-the-counter
supplement found in your average health food
store is not what was studied here.
“Those over-the-counter supplements are not
regulated, so exact amounts of active
ingredient are unknown and their efficacy
has not been studied yet.”
The study looked at patients
who had suffered a heart attack in the
previous year. Study participants were given
two-300-milligram XZK capsules or a placebo
and tracked over a five-year period. The XZK
capsules contained a combination of
lovastatin, lovastatin hydroxyl acid,
ergosterol and other components.
“I think it is surprising
that a natural product like XZK would have
this great an effect,” said Capuzzi.
“If further testing and study
prove true, my hope is that XZK becomes an
important therapeutic agent to treat
cardiovascular disorders and in the
prevention of disease whether someone has
had a heart attack or not.
“But it is important to
recognize the fact we do not know exactly
how Chinese red yeast rice works. The exact
ingredients from the XZK capsules have not
been isolated and studied yet. Still the
results were so profound, even out
performing statins prescribed in numerous
western populations, that further study
should certainly be investigated.”
The study was sponsored by
Beijing Peking University WBL Biotech Co.
Ltd (WPU), in Beijing, People’s Republic of
China. Dr. Capuzzi has no financial interest
in this company.
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