Red Yeast Rice.Riz-Strol Questions: HELP

goodby1 · 04-08-2004, 03:52 PM

Hey everybody- I posted a couple of days ago concerning this but it seems like either the title wasn't provocative enough or the thread got overlooked. So I'm kind of reposting with a more URGENT sounding title, hoping that someone might help answer some of my questions...

Read on:

1) Went to the doctor 4 months ago. Bad news- High Cholesterol.
Total cholesterol: 242
Triglycerides: 83
HDL: 53
VLDL:17
and (YIKES) :172

OK, this didn't surprise me. My dad has high cholesterol.
I'm male, 120 lbs, 5'7". Doc looks at me and says: "I hesistate to put you on any diet at all." (hah!) Anyway- he gives me the basic "lower your cholesterol" diet but if I were to follow that I'd probably blow away with the next strong breeze. Instead I do a couple of things: I start being less sedate and go to the gym AND I start watching my diet. Instead of the strict regimen given to me, I cut out most fatty foods, stop drinking soda, watch the foods that might spike my glycemic index (white breads etc.), and elimate all transfatty stuff (the snacks we all love). I also begin taking 1000mg of Fish Oil per day. I look foward to my second blood test to affirm that all of these measures are helping.

2) 3 months later: Nurse calls me up. "I have some bad news, and I have some bad news." Apparently all of my dieting and exercise have been for naught. Bad news 1: cholesterol hasn't gone down. Bad news 2: it's actually popped up another 10 points. Terrible!

3) Doc wants to put me on Lipitor- just 10mg a day. However since I don't want to contribute to overall decline of the health care of our nation, I tell the doc to give me another 3 months to try alternatives to going on the prescription drug rolls. He agrees.

4) My plan: I have just bought Riz-Strol. After browsing these boards, it seems to have yielded the best results with the fewest number of scary side effects. Here's what it is:

500 mg red yeast rice
100 mg Guggulipd Extract
75 mg Artichoke Extract
10 mg Grape Seed Extract
5 mg Garlic powder Extract 100:1

I plan on taking this 3x a day according to the bottle for 21 days. It then says to lay off the stuff of 7 days and then resume. I will probably resume with only 2x a day.

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS:

1) Is there anything that I should be taking to offset any potential damage or side effects that this Riz-Strol might do? I know that some people take pills to guard against what the statins do to their system- is it like CoQ or something? Should I be taking something like that concurrently?

2) What IS this stuff? Browsing the boards it SEEMED like Riz-strol actually contained the same stuff as lovistatin: is that true? Is this just a cheaper and more natural way of getting the same stuff as in the prescription meds? If so, I LIKE it! -
Anyway- from what I gathered IT SEEMED like Riz-strol contained 2.5 mg lovistatin per caplet... correct me if I'm wrong.

3) What do you think of my plan? I kind of wanted to do the least bit of pill popping for the maximum effect. Since it's been proven that my diet really isn't effecting my serum cholesterol, I'm going to go back to eating normal-like with a few exeptions: I'm still watching transfats and cutting back on obvious offenders (no shellfish, etc). I didn't want to be too Spartan but I'm not going to go and disregard diet altogether. Also, I didn't want to take 15 pills a day, so I thought that I'd start with Riz-Strol since people seem to have been getting some pretty maximum results from it with the least amount of possible side effects (whenever people mention "flushing" it creeps me out- I don't know what it is, but it doesn't sound good and I don't want it happening to me!)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

pcovers · 04-09-2004, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodby1

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS:

1) Is there anything that I should be taking to offset any potential damage or side effects that this Riz-Strol might do? I know that some people take pills to guard against what the statins do to their system- is it like CoQ or something? Should I be taking something like that concurrently?

2) What IS this stuff? Browsing the boards it SEEMED like Riz-strol actually contained the same stuff as lovistatin: is that true? Is this just a cheaper and more natural way of getting the same stuff as in the prescription meds? If so, I LIKE it! -
Anyway- from what I gathered IT SEEMED like Riz-strol contained 2.5 mg lovistatin per caplet... correct me if I'm wrong.

3) What do you think of my plan? I kind of wanted to do the least bit of pill popping for the maximum effect. Since it's been proven that my diet really isn't effecting my serum cholesterol, I'm going to go back to eating normal-like with a few exeptions: I'm still watching transfats and cutting back on obvious offenders (no shellfish, etc). I didn't want to be too Spartan but I'm not going to go and disregard diet altogether. Also, I didn't want to take 15 pills a day, so I thought that I'd start with Riz-Strol since people seem to have been getting some pretty maximum results from it with the least amount of possible side effects (whenever people mention "flushing" it creeps me out- I don't know what it is, but it doesn't sound good and I don't want it happening to me!)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Taking CoQ10 is a good idea. Th dosage is speculative. I take 100mg day of the highly soluble variety.

In the supplement you are looking at the only think that is going to effect your cholesterol directly is the Red Yeast Rice. It is a statin. Many do have good results.

zip2play · 04-09-2004, 10:47 AM

goodby,

I think it's a bad idea. Who is guaranteeing the statin sode of 2.5 mg lovastatin.

On the cost:
20 mg. lovastatin: $ 36.99/30 days

To get this dose of the Riz-stol you'd have to take a handful of pills and the cost will be MANY times the Rx lovastatin.

With any statin, I think 100 mg CoQ10 is good but with a teeny dose like the herbal, it's probably not necessary.

Let us know if you get your lipid numbers improved with it.

goodby1 · 04-09-2004, 02:02 PM

1) Thanks for the answers so far. I think I'll try that CoQ stuff at a low dosage as you recommended.

2) I suppose that I am a little adverse to going prescription right off the bat. The Riz Strol stuff is going to be initially about $15/ for a month in the beginning but I'm going to lower the dose to 2 caps a day in the second month- and if that works, then to 1 cap a day... that would reduce the cost to $7 a month or so. So far people have been getting good results doing this it seems. And since my doc was only going to put me on 10mg lipitor to start with, I'm thinking that he doesn't think that I need to much bang in my prescription straight away. That's why I'm kind of shooting for the low dosage alternative.

3) IS ORGANIKA A LARGE, REPUTABLE COMPANY?

tacomel · 04-10-2004, 04:09 PM

welcome to the world of confusion!! i have been on a "diet" since last july and have read so much about cholesterol/triglycerides that i make myself crazy with it all, it is a huge area of contradiction. however , t here do seem to be certain peices of advice that you read over and over again- and i just tend to follow the stuff that actually makes sense to me.. Red Yeast Rice does work much the same way as the statin medications, and i have read that if you take red yeast rice supplement- you should also take coQ10 as well because both statins and red yeast rice deplete coQ10 enzyme from your body. the problems with the natural supplements is that there are no specific guidelines to what the actual dosage should be- so you dont know if you are taking the proper amounts to help yourself. GOOD LUCK!