Red yeast rice lowers cholesterol in physicians - a double blind, placebo controlled randomized trial

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of study participants

	Intervention group (n = 31)	Placebo group (n = 21)	p-value*
Age (mean, SD)	55 (7)	55 (11)	0,97
%Male /%Female	61/39	43/58	0,26
Mean total cholesterol in mg/dl (SD)	244 (28)	233 (26)	0,16
Mean HDL in mg/dL (SD)	66 (17)	60 (16)	0,21
Mean LDL in mg/dL (SD)	154 (29)	148 (22)	0,42
Mean TG in mg/dL (SD)	119 (53)	120 (62)	0,93
Mean systolic blood pressure (SD)	118 (8,5)	123 (10,8)	0,10
Mean diastolic blood pressure (SD)	74 (8,1)	77 (6,7)	0,14
Smokers	0	1	0,40
Former smokers	12	5	0,37
Diabetes/impaired glucose tolerance	1	2	0,56
Family history of cardiovascular risk**	2	2	1,00
Cardiovascular risk profile***, median risk (range)	2 (0–5)	2 (0–4)	0,21

*Paired t-test, chi² test, Fischer’s exact test or Mann–Whitney U test.
**Defined as having a father or brother with an ischemic event (cardiac, cerebral, or peripheral) before the age of 55 and/or a mother or sister with an ischemic event before the age of 65.
***Ten-year risk of fatal CVD based on Belgian SCORE table (by gender, age, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and smoking status [6].

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