A study was published in the American Journal of Cardiology (2010; 105(2): 198-204) looked at 43 dyslipidemia patients who had discontinued their statin medication because of myalgia (muscle pain–a serious side-effect in statin users).  The subjects were given either pravastatin (20 mg/twice daily) or red yeast rice (2.4 g/twice daily). At the end of 12 weeks only 5% of the red yeast rice group discontinued medication because of myalgia, compared to 9% in the pravstatin group. More people in the group receiving the red yeast rice had a reduction in LDL (“bad”) cholesterol (30% compared to 27%).