Cholesterol Management

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.lef.org/LEFCMS/aspx/PrintVersionMagic.aspx?CmsID=118549

Cholesterol Management

Emerging research into underappreciated aspects of cholesterol biochemistry has revealed that levels of cholesterol account for only a portion of the cardiovascular risk profile, while the properties of the molecules responsible for transporting cholesterol through the blood, called lipoproteins, offer important insights into the development of atherosclerosis.

In fact, the size and density of lipoproteins are important factors for cardiovascular risk – for example, large, buoyant LDL (“bad cholesterol”) particles are much less dangerous than small, dense LDL particles; likewise large, buoyant HDL (“good cholesterol”) particles offer greater vascular protection than smaller, more dense HDL. The development of advanced lipid testing strategies that take the importance of lipoprotein particle size into consideration, such as the Vertical Auto Profile (VAP) or NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) tests, allows a far deeper assessment of cardiovascular risk than a conventional lipid profile utilized by most mainstream medical practitioners.

Furthermore, metabolic processes, such as oxidation and glycation, modify the functionality of lipoproteins, transforming them from cholesterol transport vehicles into highly reactive molecules capable of damaging the delicate endothelial cells that line our arterial walls. This endothelial damage both initiates and promotes atherogenesis. Scientifically supported natural interventions can target the formation of these modified lipoproteins and help avert deadly cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke.

The pharmaceutical industry has been very successful in promoting cholesterol reduction with statin drugs as essentially the most important strategy for reducing cardiovascular risk. However, although the use of pharmaceutical treatment has saved lives, Life Extension has long recognized that optimal cardiovascular protection involves a multifactorial strategy that includes at least 17 different factors responsible for vascular disease. Life Extension believes that innovative strategies for decreasing vascular risk should incorporate thorough cholesterol and lipoprotein testing, as well as strategic nutrient and pharmaceutical intervention, for optimal health effects and vascular support.

[Peregrine Took]

1. Anyone ever treat high cholesterol with red rice?

My Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor recommended it for me.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. If I remember correctly it is exactly the same as a statin, buyer beware, read the

following.

http://www.spacedoc.com/red_yeast_rice.htm
One can imagine the chagrin of the pharmaceutical industry to discover in a simple yeast from the Orient that Mother Nature already had provided her very own "completely natural" HMG- CoA inhibitor, red yeast rice!

For thousands of years this yeast, known as Monascus purpureus, has been used to ferment rice into wine and as both a spice and preservative. Needless to say, any possible interference of this oriental fermentation product with the emerging statin drug industry was obviated by Merck's patent--the first ever filed on a naturally occurring substance. Mother Nature's statin would never compete with Merck's identical product, lovastatin, which has the trade name of Mevacor.

Red yeast rice has been used in the Orient for hundred of years. Since 800 A.D. this substance has been employed by the Chinese as both a food and a medicine. Its therapeutic benefits as both a promoter of blood circulation and a digestive stimulant were first noted in the traditional Chinese pharmacopoeia, Ben Cao Gang Mu-Dan Shi Bu Yi, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

In China, red yeast rice formerly was used to treat abdominal pain due to what they call stagnant blood and dysentery, as well as for both external as well as internal trauma. In addition to its therapeutic applications, red yeast rice has been used for centuries as a flavor enhancer, a food preservative, and a base for a Taiwanese alcoholic rice-wine beverage. In the past decades red yeast rice is being used in China for the same reasons statins are being used in the U.S. and elsewhere for control of cardiovascular diseases.

[cutlassmama]

4. I took it for 6 months and it didn't lower my numbers so now I take C0Q10

I'll see in a few months what that does to my numbers. Maybe I should take both. My doctor did tell me to take Coromega (fish oil).

[FLyellowdog]

3. My sister's doctor just told her to take it. Plus fish oil.nt