Lovastatin

Am I taking one of these drugs? So the lipophilic statins, as defined by Clement et al., in a research paper I'll link down below, are atorvastatin, which is marketed in the United States as Lipitor.

Fluvastatin, which is marketed as Lescol, Lovastatin, which is marketed as Mevacor, Pitavastatin, which is marketed as Lavalo, and Simvastatin, which is marketed as Zocor.

The hydrophilic statins, which didn't seem to show this same doubling of dementia risk, are Pravastatin, which is marketed as Pravacol, and Rosuvastatin, which is marketed as Crestor.

Important to note, that this study did not look at the PCSK9 inhibitors, which are Evalocumab, marketed as Repatha, and Alirocumab, which is marketed as Praluence.

Dosed at three to 10 milligrams produces a significant ApoB reduction with LDL drops around 39 milligrams per deciliter in some trials, comparable to a low intensity statin.

That makes sense once you know that the active ingredient, this monacolins K, is chemically identical to lovastatin.

Lovastatin is a statin.

Red yeast rice is a natural statin, which means it carries the same potential for muscle achiness and liver issues as a prescription statin.

And product standardization varies widely, which is why, again, quality is important.

Statins.

Lovastatin, atorvastatin, Lipitor, Zocor, Pravastatin, right? Pravacol.

All those guys.

All of them.

Oh, absolutely.

People are just so desperate to avoid a prescription pad that they end up blindly consuming the exact same compound just, you know, with way worse quality control.

It's just a wild paradox.

And it's exactly why we are diving into this today.

What's fascinating here is the underlying mechanism.

Okay, lay on me.

So the active ingredient in red yeast rice that is doing all that heavy lifting, it's a naturally occurring compound called monoclonal K.

Monoclonal K.