Cardiovascular & Lipids

Red yeast rice has been sold as a cholesterol supplement for decades, and for most of that time the European Union agreed it worked. There was an authorised health claim on the books saying so. That claim is now gone, and the ingredient behind it sits under a restriction that caps how much can go … Read more

Most ingredient posts in this series end with “the evidence is weaker than the marketing.” This one is different. Red yeast rice works. That’s the problem. Its active compound is chemically identical to a prescription statin, and the regulatory history that follows from that fact is unlike anything else covered here.   Identical, not similar … Read more

The fishy burp is usually treated as an inconvenience — something to be masked, delayed, or endured. It’s better understood as a signal of fish oil oxidation. And the data on what happens when that signal gets masked is the most interesting part of this topic.   The taste is a chemical signal Omega-3 fatty … Read more

A lipid panel reports four numbers. Understanding what each represents is the easy part. The harder parts are the ones nobody mentions. Units differ by country and use two separate conversion factors. Fasting is no longer routinely required. And a fifth number can be calculated from what you already have — one that some guidance … Read more