Recently, Japan's Kobayashi Pharmaceutical sold three health products containing red yeast rice ingredients, with cholesterol reduction as the main selling point, causing many deaths, more than 100 people admitted to the hospital The incident continues to ferment, causing widespread concern, although the Japanese government has ordered Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Company to recall the products involved, but the turmoil will also "red yeast" into the public eye.
What is red yeast rice, what are its effects, and whether medicines containing red yeast rice can continue to be taken by patients have become topics of general concern.
Red yeast rice is non-toxic and is widely used in food processing, rice wine brewing, and traditional Chinese medicine treatment
"Red yeast rice is a kind of rice as raw material, inoculated with monascus fermentation made of natural products, its use has a history of more than 1,000 years, in food processing, rice wine brewing is very widely used," Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital Deputy Director of the Department of Pharmacy Li Zhuo introduced, because of the medicinal value of red yeast rice, is also used in traditional Chinese medicine treatment, as recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", "red yeast rice has the effect of eliminating food and swelling, invigorating blood circulation, and stomach and spleen" At the same time, modern Chinese medicine pharmacological research has also shown that red yeast rice can be used for the adjuvant treatment of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis, so red yeast rice itself is non-toxic and is a food supplement or drug with high safety.
Li Zhuo said that there are three main types of red yeast rice produced in China, namely brewing red yeast rice, pigmented red yeast rice and functional red yeast rice, "among them, brewing red yeast rice is widely used in the brewing of various rice wines, white wines, vinegar and sauces; while pigment red yeast rice has a high color value and is usually used for coloring meat products, pickles, beverages and other foods; functional red yeast rice refers to the fermentation of Monacolin containing fermentation naturally produced by fermentation with rice as raw material and pure culture of monacolytic." K (monacolin K, a structural analogue of lovastatin) and other bioactive substances are often used as raw materials for health products and drugs for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as lipito, Xuezhikang, etc.
"After the incident of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's red yeast rice health products, it really caused trouble to patients who took medicines containing red yeast rice, and they came to ask, do they dare to continue taking them? From the current media reports, the problem is caused by the unknown ingredients in the red yeast raw materials, which is likely to be the company's lack of strict control of the production process and the lack of supervision, resulting in the production process of red yeast rice produced harmful impurities and some secondary metabolites, which will have the risk of kidney and liver damage if these substances are ingested by the human body in excess.
When taking medicines containing red yeast rice, you should avoid concomitant use of other statins
In the wake of the Kobayashi pharmaceutical incident, the Japanese government has asked the company to recall all problematic products and launch an investigation. However, according to Japanese media reports, as of now, "the pathogenic ingredients contained in the problematic health products and the pathogenic mechanism are not clear". Li Zhuo pointed out that the three products of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, which led to the incident, are all health care products, not medicines, and the production requirements for health care products are much lower than those of drugs, and they can often be produced in food processing plants only for filing management, and there are no strict requirements for the concentration of main ingredients and impurities. In mainland China, drugs must meet national GMP norms and regulatory requirements in all aspects of the production environment, sterility standards, and raw material quality, and the composition of drug prescriptions must also pass strict pharmacological and toxicological review and multi-phase clinical trial observation before they can be approved for marketing. Therefore, as long as it is a drug legally produced and sold by a regular manufacturer, even if the drug contains red yeast rice, it can be taken normally under the condition of following the doctor's instructions.
Because red yeast rice contains natural statins, the mainland population is poorly tolerated to high-dose statins, so experts recommend that other statins should be avoided when taking medicines or health products containing red yeast rice. Li Zhuo pointed out, "taking large doses of statins, prone to liver and kidney damage and rhabdomyolysis and other adverse reactions, during the use of drugs, especially in the early stage of medication, to regularly monitor whether there are adverse reactions, it is recommended to use the first month and three months of blood tests to understand whether there is liver and kidney function damage, for elderly patients, because there may be a risk of rhabdomyolysis, etc., creatine kinase indicators also need to be checked; Observe symptoms such as rashes, and move the adverse warning threshold forward, so as to reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions and side effects, and seek medical attention in time if you feel unwell."
Huashang Daily Gale News reporter Wu Jie
The picture comes from the Internet (invaded and deleted)