“This multicenter study was conducted to determine the effects of Xuezhikang (XZK), a partially purified extract of red yeast rice..” write researchers.  THe study found that the Chinese herbal remedy appeared to significantly reduce the risk of a repeat heart attack in heart patients.  The study is published in the American Journal of Cardiology

Researchers wrote, “In conclusion, long-term therapy with XZK significantly decreased the recurrence of coronary events and the occurrence of new cardiovascular events and deaths, improved lipoprotein regulation, and was safe and well tolerated.” 

The herbal remedy, reduced the repeat heart attack risk by about45 percent and death from heart disease by about 30 percent.

“It’s very exciting because this is a natural product and had very few adverse side effects including no abnormal blood changes,” David Capuzzi, director of the cardiovascular disease prevention program at Jefferson’s Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine in Philadelphia, said in a release.

The herbal remedy was also accocited with lower total cholesterol levels, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (bad cholesterol), and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (good cholesterol) levels, all of which are thought to reduces the risk of a heart attack.

The study was a randomized, double-blind study involving 5,000 Chinese patients who has suffer a heart attack. the patients age ranged from 18 to 70. One group was given 300 mg capsules of the herbal remedy, while the other group was given a placebo.

The herbal remedy red rice yeast extract is available as a supplement in the U.S. but researchers caution that it is not the same as the one used in the study, so its effectiveness is not known.

Source
American Journal of Cardiology