Red yeast rice is the supplement every cholesterol forum recommends as the "natural alternative." People take it specifically because they want to avoid the side effects associated with cholesterol medications.
Here's the issue: red yeast rice works through the same biochemical pathway as statin-class medications. It contains monacolin K, a compound that inhibits the same enzyme your liver uses to produce cholesterol. It is, biochemically, a less-regulated version of what's in statin-class medication.
Same mechanism. Same limitation.
Medications in the statin class, and red yeast rice, work primarily by reducing the quantity of LDL your liver produces. They bring the number on the lab report down. But that mechanism doesn't address whether the cholesterol already circulating in your bloodstream gets oxidized by free radicals.
This is why some people can take cholesterol-lowering medication for years, with "perfect" LDL numbers, and still experience cardiac events. The quantity was managed. The oxidation mechanism wasn't.
And the same side effects people were trying to avoid in the first place? Muscle aches and discomfort are among the most commonly reported effects of red yeast rice, the same complaints that drive people away from medication in the first place.