"What studies exist on gynostemma all seem to have looked at effects in cell cultures and on rodents (i.e. rats and guinea pigs). No human trials. Given the problems that have surfaced on closer examination of some "traditional Chinese medicines", I'm not sure I'd want to be a human guinea pig for gynostemma." On the contrary, the Chinese have done all the field trials you could want on this. Jiaogulan tea is quite popular in the areas of China where people have enjoyed extreme longevity (100+) for centuries. Now, while that doesn't PROVE Jiagulan is good for you, if it was toxic it's unlikely regular users would live LONGER than average. Remember that most clinical trials in the USA are done for profit, pure and simple. Come up with a new cholesterol drug you can patent, and you'll get your study. But imagine this: someone decides to do a clinical trial to prove that drinking distilled water is good for you. They spend 50 Million dollars proving this. Now, they publish their results. How do they make their money back? The water market is already saturated, so to speak. Making money selling water usually requires fringe science claims that the water has been 'de-polarized' by spinning in a centrifuge for ten hours. Not kidding, BTW. So, the only studies you'll see on "wellness" items are going to be smaller, University studies. It's surprising even ginseng attracted enough attention to be studied, much less exotics like Jiaogulan.

There is some great info in this thread! Copying and pasting. My cholesterol has been stellar, but DH has a familial issue. He's been on Lipitor for years, now just switched to Vytorin. We'll see with the next blood test if it had any results. I'm another one who cooks only with EVOO or a bit of canola or grapeseed when absolutely necessary. You know that I don't add butter to any recipe that I'll be eating, nor do we use much butter or margarine here. DH give up eating cheese, but he prefers the harder types such as swiss or manchego as opposed to Brie. He likes it as a lo-carb/hi protein snack. He drinks his coffee black and uses 1% milk with his oatmeal. He primarily eats skinless white meat chicken, lean cuts of beef or salmon most of the time. Apples, he could do w/o but maybe spread with almond butter. One thing that we don't do w/o transfats is peanut butter. We buy the lower fat variety, but it has to be Skippy! What I haven't seen mentioned here, and Linda, this would be beneficial for you, is that the statin drugs--Lipitor in particular--may have some effect in reducing tumors of the colon. If that's the case, it may not be such a bad drug to take. Sometimes, I think we fight taking a pill, just because we want to do it "naturally" with niacin etc. but it's not the best choice. I definitely believe in diet and exercise, but in many cases like Annie's or DH's or Sharon's, it's genetics, plain and simple. So fight it with the entire arsenal!

I also have HP and statin drugs were prescribed but, I exhibit side effects pretty quickly with a lot of drugs and did so with Lipitor. I stopped them and went the diet route to help lower my cholesterol. Several months later I was discussing this with a friend and she told me about the red yeast rice and how much it helped her. She gave me a website and I ordered some. I guess I took the recommended dose for a week or so before side effects kicked in and I had to stop. I then went online to research it a little more and discovered that RYR has a naturally occuring statin which has recently caused the FDA to place it in the controlled substance group. This friend had told me that her original supplier no longer carried it but she found it on another website. I don't know if the new website was selling the same product (with statins) or one where the statins had been removed. I just know that I could not take it because of the side effects. She had no problems though and said that the new source product worked just as well as the old one and continued to lower her cholesterol. I just know that if I take it I end up with every bone in my body hurting the same as if I take Lipitor. All I can say is, give it a try. Get your cholesterol monitored before starting and then again after being on it for awhile and see if it helps. As I said, she swears by it and I wish it worked as well for me as it seems to work for her.

Shirley, I read your post just now while eating oat bran. LOL Usually I cook it in a bowl in the microwave, sometimes adding raisins before cooking. Sometimes I add a sprinkle of cinnamon. Occasionally I stir in some applesauce after cooking. Tonight I was eating it uncooked, mixed with wheat germ and some raisins and walnuts, and sweetened slightly with one drop of stevia. Cooked or uncooked, I eat it with soymilk. Actually, oat bran is very much on my mind right now because I have to launder a shirt and shorts that are covered with it. I fell down my porch steps this evening while holding a bowl of cooked oat bran and soymilk, and it got all over me--hair, arms, clothes. What a mess. I don't know how it happened. My DS was right there, and he doesn't know how it happened either. I'm just glad I didn't reinjure my bad knee. Anyway, I didn't get to eat any of it, so that's why I was eating it uncooked a little later.