Red Yeast Rice is a statin, just a natural one and you can have the same side efects on that as you can on a man made statin. Be sure you take CoQ-10 with any statin you take as statin drugs deplete the body of this and every cell in your body needs this!.

Good foods to help lower cholesterol
Oatmeal
Walnuts
Blueberries
1- glass red wine a day
Metamucil
Flax seed

Aviod processed foods or anything tampered with by man. Aviod ANYTHING with Partially Hydrogenated oils, also watch out for the food industry creatively naming things. Interesterified oil, monoglycinate, mono and diglycinate are all names for hydrogenated oil! (Read lables on everything!) If Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated is included anywhere in the ingredients list it has trans fat regardless of what other boasts the product makes. Fully Hydrogenated oils do not contain trans fats, but Partially Hydrogenated oils do. Also, it is equally as important to note the Saturated Fat content, and be careful not to substitute Trans Fats with Saturated (which contribute significantly to LDL (bad cholesterol).

Statin Alternatives
1) Buffered Aspirin - 81 mg (contains beneficial magnesium)
2) CoQ10 - 100 to 150 mg (Gelcaps - NOT powdered) with small amount of Vitamin E)
3) Folic Acid - 400-800 mcg
B6 - 80-100mg
B12 - 200-250mcg
All 3 of the B Vitamins above control Homocysteine (Hcy)
~ OR... take a B Complex or multi-vitamin that contains these B Vitamin amounts
4) Omega 3 (fish oil, cod liver oil or krill oil) [ There is no upper limit]
Cod liver oil has the added benefit of vitamins A & D.

Eating healthy and changing to a healthy lifestyle will save your life. Avoid taking man made drugs if there is another way to correct the problem.

Dr. Golomb has studied statin drugs side effects. Here is a great video she did on some of her resluts. It is a hour long but well worth the time it takes to watch it. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-IARKXS4Q