I'm not familiar with the program you posted but am always a little wary of any site that posts sensational testimonials like the ones on that site. The info may or may not be reliable, but that site's sales approach seems a little sheisty.
I like to annoy my family by force feeding them nutritional supplements and randomly commenting about what they should, or should not be eating... here's a little unsolicited advice for you too. Since you're in research mode you may want to look into these:
Pantethine is available as a dietary supplement because of evidence of its health benefits. In multiple clinical trials of patients with elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, total and LDL cholesterol were decreased by 12%, triglycerides decreased by 18%, and HDL cholesterol was increased by 9%.[1][2] These clinical trials were conducted with daily intakes ranging from 600 to 1200 mg/day. Within this dose range there is no evidence of a dose-effect relationship, i.e. changes in lipid concentrations overlapped across the range of doses. Direct dose-response evidence is not available because no trial tested more than one dose. A few trials tested 300 mg/day with more modest but still statistically significant results.[3]
Further carefully controlled trials of 600 and 900 mg/d doses have shown statistically significant lowering of LDL cholesterol in individuals with greatly or moderately elevated levels of blood lipids.
Glucomannan is a dietary fiber:
Glucomannan - Cholesterol and other lipids
Glucomannan has demonstrated statistically significant improvements in the total cholesterol of obese patients.[4] In healthy men, four weeks of taking 3.9 grams of glucomannan decreased total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and systolic blood pressure; notably, triglycerides dropped by 23%.[5] Glucomannan has also been tested in children with high cholesterol in conjunction with a diet. Interestingly, greater decreases in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein were observed in girls when compared to boys.[6] When used in conjunction with chitosan, glucomannan decreases serum cholesterol, possibly by increasing steroidexcretion via the feces.[7]
Type 2 diabetes
Glucomannan may be useful as a therapeutic adjunct for type 2 diabetes. It has been shown to improve the lipid profile and alleviate the fasting blood glucose levels of type 2 diabetics.[8]
Another supplement is Red Yeast rice, which is a non patented - non prescription - version of a statin. It's got the same risks as a prescription statin so if you are trying to get away from statins it's probably not for you.
Red yeast rice and 'statin' drugs
In the late 1970s, researchers in the United States and Japan were isolating lovastatin from Aspergillus and monacolins from Monascus, respectively, the latter being the same fungus used to make red yeast rice but cultured under carefully controlled conditions. Chemical analysis soon showed that lovastatin and monacolin K are identical. The article "The origin of statins" summarizes how the two isolations, documentations and patent applications were just months apart.[3] Lovastatin became the patented, prescription drug Mevacor for Merck & Co. Red yeast rice went on to become a contentious non-prescription dietary supplement in the United States and other countries.
Lovastatin and other prescription "statin" drugs inhibit cholesterol synthesis by blocking action of the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase. As a consequence, circulating total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol are lowered. In a meta-analysis of 91 randomized clinical trial of ≥12 weeks duration, totaling 68,485 participants, LDL-cholesterol was lowered by 24-49% depending on the statin.[4] Different strains of Monascus fungus will produce different amounts of monacolins. The 'Went' strain of Monascus purpureus (purpureus = purple in Latin), when properly fermented and processed, will yield a dried red yeast rice powder that is approximately 0.4% monacolins, of which roughly half will be monacolin K (identical to lovastatin). Monacolin content of a red yeast rice product is described in a 2008 clinical trial report.
