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Statins are hard cholesterol-lowering drugs with serious, potentially deadly side effects. <\/p>\nStatins are hard cholesterol-lowering drugs with serious, potentially deadly side effects. <\/p>\n
But a new study now shows that one type of statin can be naturally obtained from your food\u2026 without side effects!<\/p>\n
In a new study from Sriwijaya University<\/em> in Indonesia, this food was found to drop cholesterol by a whopping 60%.<\/p>\n Lovastatin is a statin that can cause abdominal pain, nausea, constipation or diarrhea, muscle pain and weakness, and so forth. <\/p>\n But lovastatin also reduces the amount of an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase in your body. HMG-CoA reductase plays a big part in your body’s manufacturing of cholesterol, so reducing it prevents your body from making too much cholesterol.<\/p>\n Lovastatin also occurs naturally in some food types in smaller amounts, so the researchers wondered whether this natural form of it could do the same physiological job.<\/p>\n The Indonesian scientists identified fermented fish as a food type that contains lovastatin. <\/p>\n In Indonesia, carp fish fermented by the bacterium lactobacillus acidophilus is a popular fish paste called bekasam, so they started there.<\/p>\n They made their own bekasam by gutting and washing carp fish and then leaving it in a culture of lactobacillus acidophilus for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n They then removed it from the bacteria, mixed it with salt and rice, and left it to ferment for seven days.<\/p>\n They then applied the paste to HMG-CoA reductase enzymes in the laboratory and discovered that it could reduce the presence of this enzyme by an amazing 60%.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the bacterium lactobacillus acidophilus is not freely available in shops, so you will have to make your fish without it.<\/p>\n Sauerkraut contains plenty of bacteria from the lactobacillus family, so you can add small pieces of carp or mackerel to the leftover liquid in a sauerkraut jar, add your favorite herbs and spices, and leave it in the fridge for a few days.<\/p>\n If this sounds too unappetizing, a fermented Chinese tea called pu-erh, oyster mushrooms, or red yeast rice (another Chinese delicacy) also contain lovastatin.<\/p>\n