How effective are HypoCol, Cholestin, and Xuezhikang in lowering lipids?
Chinese scientists conducted most of the animal and human studies on this issue, using either Zhitai or Xuezhikang. The results of some 17 studies involving approximately 900 Chinese subjects with modestly elevated cholesterol levels have been published. In eight of these studies, there was a control group that received a placebo (a pill with no active ingredients) for comparison purposes. In nine of the studies, there was no placebo control group. These studies consistently showed that Zhitai and Xuezhikang: • lower total cholesterol (by an average of 10% to 30%), • lower LDL cholesterol (by an average of 10% to 20%), • lower triglycerides (by an average of 15% to 25%), and • increase HDL (by an average of 7% to 15%). Scientists at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition studied Cholestin in a 12-week, double blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 83 American adults with borderline-high to moderately elevated cholesterol. They found that Cholestin (when red yeast rice was an ingredient
