XZK red rice extract cuts deaths

Topical news from the Times this week on "Red yeast rice extract XZK". The researchers worry that food supplements are not fully regulated and standardised ... but to me it sounds very much like using Indian curry powder / tumeric, another natural food product. I welcome the news, again of a potential low cost cancer treatment found from traditional oriental medicine just like tumeric. We will stick with tumeric, it has 100 times the number of Google hits as a cancer preventative over XZK.

The serious scientific trial of 5000 Chinese heart patients showed that taking XZK gave a dramatic drop in the number of cancer deaths — 29 cancer deaths in those on placebo, 13 in those on XZK.

Red yeast rice has been used in China for thousands of years as a food preservative, colorant and seasoning and herbal medicine. It is the ingredient that gives Peking duck its red colour.

Dr Capuzzi led the study together with Dr Zonliang Lu, from the Chinese Academy of Medical Science in Beijing.