[But I don't think the big boys in the US will ever let this type TCM go mainstream simply because it would threaten their profit]--Clinical study on TCM statin proves its effectiveness in treating heart diseases '
By Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : According to the National Health Survey, more than half of Singaporeans have an unhealthy level of bad cholesterol.
But if you have to pop pills to keep your cholesterol in check, there is now an alternative to Western statins to lower cholesterol levels.
A landmark study on a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) health supplement has found that it is not only just as effective as Western statins, it is also better at preventing heart attacks.
The clinical study, the first to be done on a TCM drug, included Singapore heart patients.
Jeremy Harris , who has high cholesterol, was once so put off by the side effects of cholesterol-lowering statins that he stopped taking them.
Statins are known to have side effects like liver toxicity and muscles aches.
But Jeremy can now take a TCM drug to treat his cholesterol problem, as it is now clinically proven to have none of the side effects of Western statins.
Called Xuezhikang, it is made from fermented red yeast rice and is the leading statin in China.
But doctors wanted to know if it could also prevent heart diseases besides lowering cholesterol.
So Professor Lu Zongliang from the Beijing Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences did a four-year clinical study using Xuezhikang on almost 5,000 heart patients in China, at 65 hospitals in 19 provinces across China.
And it found that heart patients who took Xuezhikang had a much lower risk of getting heart attacks (45 percent compared to 24 percent), than those who took Western statins.
Professor Lu said, "The significance of my study is that this is the first time China applied evidence-based medicine to prove the efficacy of a TCM drug in treating coronary heart diseases. That was never done before.
"It proves that Xuezhikang does indeed lower cholesterol, protects the heart, and has little side effects....And anyone with high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, obesity could benefit from taking Xuezhikang."
Other researchers are also excited by the study - as it showed that the TCM drug reduced the risk of cancer by half.
Dr Li Zhaoping, Director, Clinical Research Unit, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said, "There's a significant drop in cancer incidence and death when people take Chinese red yeast rice...At UCLA United States, we have done some preliminary work, and we have been amazed at those compounds, and their significant effects on cancer cell growth.
"It decreases the inflammation of the body and as you know inflammation causes a lot of problems, including heart disease and stroke....So we're very very excited, we're moving forward to on to clinical trials in the US to further clarify those functions."
A smaller study on 30 patients was also carried out at the Singapore National Heart Centre which drew similar conclusions on cholesterol reduction.
Besides being safe and free from side effects, the key advantage of such TCM alternatives is price.
They cost two-thirds of what patients would have to pay for Western statins.
In Singapore, Xuezhikang is available as HypoCol and the more potent Lipascor, a prescription only drug.
Both are approved by the Singapore Health Ministry under the new guidelines of Chinese Proprietary Medicine. - CNA
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