The Side Effects of Red Yeast Rice

Red yeast rice or monascus purpureus has been often used to lower cholesterol levels. Its local names are Hong Qu, red rice as well as red yeast. This is used in some herbal medicines and herb combinations as well. But actually the chemicals present in this kind of rice are really harmful. There are many side affects that may come with the addition of this substance into one’s body. They may include headache, indigestion, nausea of severe kind, bloating and gas, dizziness, heartburn, muscle pain, liver inflammation and peripheral nerve damage.

It reacts a lot like the statin drugs that cause myopathy. The common symptoms start with muscle fatigue, weakness, joint pains and different levels of creatine kinase. There could be accompanying mild to sever rhabdomyolysis which can ultimately lead to kidney failure. These side effects only go sever with time and are not noticeable with the muscle pain, fatigue and tenderness of joints. If these happen while using yeast rice or after prolonged use of red yeast rice then a doctor should be consulted on emergency.

The chemicals in red yeast rice considerably interfere with the body’s ability to produce CoQ10 for itself. However, long term safety use of any statin drug or red yeast rice is also not available. It definitely interacts with some very important drugs. The sad thing is this product has not yet been reviewed by FDA yet. It has no safety or effective level but chronic use of it will definitely interact with most drugs and then give severe health problems too.

If you are taking red yeast rice extract for lowering cholesterol, it is better to ask for your doctor or naturopath for a separate alternative to this. There are many alternatives and with enough information guided on your conditions, the perfect ones would be easy to find out. If however, the product has to be taken at all, then it must be taken in the very minute and appropriate detail. If any problem comes over with the use then it should be stopped immediately as well as reported to your doctor.

Red rice is produced by fermenting a certain kind of red yeast called monascus purpureous over rice. This has been used long term in China as a form of preservative as well as food coloring. Peking ducks are given this item to bring out their characteristic red color, which by no means is healthy at all! It is also used in fish sauce, commercial fish paste as well as rice wine.