If you spend a little time cruising the internet for advice on lowering your cholesterol, you might find a host of recommendations for natural options from diets to herbs and supplements.
You might see red yeast rice pop up (and pop-ups) as a viable alternative to prescription medications. If you’re curious, you might dig a little deeper and find that it has high rates of contamination with nephrotoxic molecule called citrinin, even among popular brands carried by “holistic” retailers. You might also find that the levels of active ingredient vary widely, and are generally not standardized – occasionally not even present, at least in any therapuetic quantity. And on top of it all, you might also run into the fact that it isn’t covered by your insurance, and can wind up costing hundreds of dollars a year for a supplement you’d need to take daily for the next 2-3 decades.
You might, after all that, feel like a prescription isn’t so bad. But maybe you’re wondering if there isn’t some kind of natural alternative that is safer and more effective and maybe even more affordable.
And there is – so effective your cardiologist recommends it every day, well-regulated for potency, screened for contaminants, and very, very likely to be covered by your insurance.
So you’ve already read the title. Maybe you can guess?
Statins. It’s your statins.
HMG-CoA inhibitors, to be exact – the very same as those made by several different species of fungi, like Aspergillus terreus, and Penicillium citrinum. Because the secret is, statins weren’t invented, they were discovered.
These fungally formed pharmaceuticals were stumbled upon in the 70s and 80s by researchers hoping to find a plant-sourced molecule that could interact with the formation of cholesterol and thereby lower cardiovascular risk. What they found turned out to be one of the most effective molecules for reducing not only major cardiac events, but has saved millions of lives every year.
So if you’re struggling to control your cholesterol with diet and lifestyle and thinking about adding a supplement, there are options that are natural, safe and effective – and endorsed by your doc.
Want to read more?
Check these papers out if you like the nitty gritty:
Manzoni, M, and M Rollini. “Biosynthesis and biotechnological production of statins by filamentous fungi and application of these cholesterol-lowering drugs.” Applied microbiology and biotechnology vol. 58,5 (2002): 555-64. doi:10.1007/s00253-002-0932-9
Endo A. A historical perspective on the discovery of statins. Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2010;86(5):484-493. doi:10.2183/pjab.86.484