Elspeth A. Lodge

09/06/2010 01:00 AM EDT

By Elspeth Lodge

journal Staff Writer

The Providence Journal

High blood cholesterol is a problem facing approximately one in every six adults or 17 percent of the adult U.S. population, according to the Centers for Disease Control. More women than men have high cholesterol in the country.

And because of the high risk of heart disease associated with total cholesterol levels higher than 200 mg/dL, many are turning to both traditional and alternative medicines to help control their cholesterol numbers.

Health food stores around Rhode Island have been touting the benefits of red yeast rice, a non-prescription cholesterol-lowering supplement made from cultivating rice with the mold monascus purpureus, according to Richard M. Fogoros, M.D., author of the about.com article, “Non-prescription Cholesterol Lowering Red Yeast Rice.”

The Chinese have used the supplement for centuries to treat circulatory and digestive disorders and according to redyeastrice.org, the supplement is also used in china as a preservative, food colorant, spice, and in rice wine.

But red yeast rice has been used for a much shorter period of time in the United States, and has been the subject of much controversy and confusion. In 1999 clinical trials red yeast rice was shown to effectively lower cholesterol, but only because it is directly related to a naturally occurring form of the statin drug Lovastatin (or Mevacore). The naturally occurring form in the red yeast rice is known as Monacolin K..

The FDA then ruled that the supplement should be regulated and it was pulled from the shelves, but the decision was initially overruled by The District Court of Utah in 1999. In 2000 the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with FDA’s decision for regulation. What did this ruling mean? Red yeast rice could still be sold legally in the U.S., but only if the manufacturers of the product removed the natural form of Lovastatin, which would presumably eliminate its effectiveness on cholesterol levels.

In 2007 the FDA found that many of the supplements being sold in the U.S. still contained Lovastatin. A formal FDA safety consumer alert was issued and they took steps to remove the products that still contained Lovastatin from the shelves.

Despite the FDA’s steps, the formulation and content of the supplement is not regulated. It is almost impossible to find out what the pills on your market’s shelf contain.

What you are ingesting, presumably, is a mystery pill with unproven effects. Redyeastrice.org suggests not taking the product for extended periods of time because little is known about its safety or the side effects, which, they say can include headache, stomach ache and/or bloating, gas, dizziness and heartburn.

According to Fogoros, a 2009 University of Pennsylvania study showed that 60 patients who stopped taking the prescription statin drugs due to muscle pain opted to take red yeast rice along with a 24-week lifestyle change regime reduced total and LDL cholesterol levels compared to taking a placebo and making the same lifestyle changes.

But, the product used in their study, still on the shelves, was found to contain Lovastatin.

Fogoros says that when you take any of the red yeast rice brands you are ingesting varying amounts of statin-like substances–– what it comes down to is it is impossible to know what and how much of it you are really ingesting when you take one of these supplements.

By Elspeth Lodge

Journal Staff Writer

McLennan

The C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta and Clinic is an annual sailing event that attracts the United States’ top paralympic hopefuls, as well as athletes with disabilities from Canada, China, Israel, Ireland and Puerto Rico. There are four intense days of training and racing –– held in August — including a notable clinic on the first day of the event, which covers subjects ranging from strategies to rules. When catering to people with disabilities in the water “safety is paramount,” says Jan Harley of Media Pro International. “The event is about being all-inclusive.”

The event is organized every year by Judy McLennan in honor of her late father, Thomas Clagett. As a boy, Clagett suffered from temporary paralysis and through this experience he gained an extraordinary respect for the accomplishments of people with disabilities, namely, athletes, according to McLennan.

Clagett is responsible for founding the U.S. Junior Women’s Singlehanded Championship –– The Leiter Cup –– in honor of his late wife Nancy Leiter Clagett.

McLennan says she was inspired to start her event by Robie Pierce, a man who is known as a driving force in national and international disabled sailing. It was Pierce who suggested to McLennan that she start an event for disabled sailors.

She took on the task without the benefit of a major sponsor. She has relied on local organizations and volunteers to help her make her eight planned events realities since 2003. “She’s really setting a great example for what you can do,” says Harley. “She bends over backwards to help people facilitate their goals.”

The Regatta and Clinic has grown to include three paralympic classes of boats and the “Sail Newport Blind National Sailing Championship.” According to clagettregatta.org, prior to the Clagett clinic and Regatta there were no organized programs in the United States that worked to train disabled sailors for advanced competitions.

elodge@projo.com