Exploring the Role of Nutraceuticals (Red Yeast Rice) in Secondary Prevention: A New Pathway Can Be Opened

Background:？Long-term survival in acute coronary syndrome has increased steadily in the last decades. Follow-up studies developed in this patient clearly？reveal that they are at risk of suffering a new event, placing them in a new？stage, secondary prevention. Assuming this increased risk, the control target of their cardiovascular risk factors become more ambitious. In this field, control of Cholesterol levels, particularly LDL-C, has？arisen as a priority objective？in patients with coronary arterial disease. In this sense, management of dyslipidemia guidelines, recently recognises？the role of functional food, highlighting among them is the Red Yeast Rice (RYR). The aim of the study is to establish？the potential role of functional food, in secondary prevention,？while determining its additional capacity to reduce LDL-C in patients that despite optimal？classic treatment (maximum tolerated dose of stain plus Ezetimibe) is？still out of control objectives. Results and Discussion: 88 patients were included and after 3 months of treatment with RYR, their lipid profiles were？compared with the baseline. The variation of T-Col, LDL-C and Trig were statistically significant. A reduction in LDL-C was 10.73 mg/dL, which means a 10.93% of additional reduction over the standard therapy the patients were receiving. Concerning？security, no relevant side effects were