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Chinese red food colouring prevent fights heart disease 'better than statins'
By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 5:05 PM on 09th June 2008
A red colouring ingredient widely used in Chinese food may fight off heart disease and cancer even more effectively than statins, a study suggests.
Researchers found that an extract of red yeast rice cut cancer death rates by two-thirds, and reduced the risk of dying from heart disease by one third.
Heart patients who took the supplement lowered their chances of a repeat heart attack by 45 per cent, according to the large-scale study in China.
The red colouring used in Peking duck was found to prevent heart disease and cancer
Red yeast rice extract also reduced the likelihood of undergoing bypass surgery or treatment to open up arteries by 33 per cent. Total death rates were reduced by the same amount.
One American scientist involved in the research described the results as "profound".
Dr David Carpuzzi, from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said the health benefits from red yeast rice even exceeded those of statins, the acclaimed cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Red yeast rice - rice that has been fermented by the red yeast Monascus purpureus - has been used in China for thousands of years as a food preservative and seasoning. It is the ingredient that gives Peking duck its red colour. Used medicinally, red yeast rice is said to improve blood circulation and aid digestion.
The new study was conducted among almost 5,000 heart patients aged 18 to 70 at more than 60 hospitals in the People's Republic of China.
Although the study focused mainly on heart disease, numbers of cancer deaths were also recorded.
Each day patients took either two 300 milligram capsules of a partially purified extract of the red yeast rice preparation Xuezhikang (XZK), or an inactive dummy supplement.
Researchers compared the progress of the two groups over a five year period.
Dr David Capuzzi, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program at Thomas Jefferson's Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, said: "I think it is surprising that a natural product like XZK would have this great an effect.
"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 recognise 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."
Dr Capuzzi led the study together with Dr Zonliang Lu, from the Chinese Academy of Medical Science in Beijing. Their findings were reported today in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Dr Capuzzi pointed out that the capsules used in the study were carefully prepared for the research and not the same as red yeast rice supplements available in health food stores.
"Those over-the-counter supplements are not regulated, so exact amounts of active ingredient are unknown," he said.
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