Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, draws upon a vast store of knowledge that has been built up by trial and error over thousands of years. The theories underlying TCM differ sharply from the precepts of Western medical practice, but many TCM remedies have been proved effective in treating the physical ailments that afflict people around the world. TCM offers some herbal remedies for elevated cholesterol that are worthy of consideration when analyzing various treatment options.
Hong Qu
In use for centuries, hong qu, also known as red yeast rice, is an herbal remedy produced by fermenting a strain of red yeast known as Monascus purpureus over rice. It is used in both Chinese and Japanese cooking and has been most widely prescribed by Chinese herbalists to improve circulatory health. In "The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies," authors Joe and Teresa Graedon report that 20th-century Chinese scientific studies found that hong qu could lower levels of low-density lipoprotein, the so-called bad cholesterol, and triglycerides, while raising high-density lipoprotein readings. On the basis of these studies, an enterprising Western pharmaceuticals company called Pharmanex decided to market hong qu as Cholestin.
Chemical analysis showed that hong qu, among its many active ingredients, contains lovastatin, marketed in the United States as the prescription drug Mevacor. In 1998 the FDA banned Cholestin on the grounds that it was "an unapproved drug" and not a dietary supplement. Less than a year later, a federal court decision forced the FDA to reverse its position on Cholestin, which continues to be marketed as a cholesterol-lowering dietary supplement.
Shan Zha Tang
The thorny hawthorn shrub, a member of the same botanical family as the rose, produces red or black berries that usually appear in the spring. Chinese herbalists use the leaves, flowers and berries of the hawthorn, known in Chinese as shan zha, to improve digestive and circulatory health. In "Chinese Herbal Medicine Made Easy," herbalist and author Thomas Richard Joiner offers a recipe for a cholesterol-lowering hawthorn berry tea, which he calls shan zha tang. Place 6 g of hawthorn berries in a cup, fill the cup to the brim with boiling water ,and then place a saucer over the top of the cup allowing the mixture to steep for 15 to 20 minutes. Drink the tea when it is tepid or slightly warm, either eating or discarding the berries as you prefer. To get the full benefit of this herbal remedy, drink two cups daily for six months to a year.
Mao-Tung-Ching
Dr. C.P. Li, author of "Chinese Herbal Medicine," reports that Chung-shan Hospital in Canton discovered the cholesterol-lowering properties of an herb called mao-tung-ching in the early 1970s. Herbalists extract the herb, also known as hairy holly root, from the roots of the Ilex pubescens plant, which grows widely throughout southern China. The hospital gave mao-tung-ching to 103 patients with coronary heart disease from October 1970 to the beginning of 1972. The drug was effective in reducing a variety of heart disease symptoms in patients and produced a sharp decline in cholesterol readings in half of the 60 patients who had been diagnosed with elevated cholesterol, Li reports.
References
- "The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies"; Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon; 2002
- "Chinese Herbal Medicine Made Easy: Natural and Effective Remedies for Common Illnesses"; Thomas Richard Joiner; 2001
- "Chinese Herbal Medicine"; C.P. Li; 2003
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