Retrospective analysis of the effects of a highly standardized mixture of , , and monacolins K and KA in patients with dyslipidemia.

Background: , because of its berberine content, and fermented rice, because of the presence of monacolins (naturally derived statins), are widely investigated food-grade ingredients used to formulate cholesterol-lowering supplements. Although they are extensively used, berberine is poorly absorbed and monacolins are poorly chemically characterized, not standardized, and possibly contaminated with toxic compounds. Silymarin is reported to enhance berberine absorption, while Monakopure™-K20 (MK-20) is a highly standardized red yeast rice containing monacolins K and KA in the ratio of 1:1 but not secondary monacolins, dehydromonacolins, or citrinin.

Height and weight of nursery and primary school population from Torre del Greco, a Campania town, Italy.

Height and weight were measured in 7902, 3.5-11-year-old children from Torre del Greco nursery and primary school and arranged in centiles by cumulative frequencies calculation after sorting into ascending order measurements and counting up from the bottom. Our population height and weight measurements were compared to Tanner's by chi-square test.

Blindness influences the growth of institutionalized prepubertal subjects.

To investigate if blindness influences the growth rate of young subjects we measured height and weight of 71 prepubertal blind subjects (33 females and 38 males) aged 7-10 yr, in Tanner stage one puberty, living at the Institute "Martuscelli" for young blind individuals in Naples, Italy. They were divided into two groups: group 1 consisting of 27 subjects (14 females and 13 males) with total blindness; group 2 consisting of 44 subjects (20 females and 24 males) having only a light perception. The distribution in quintiles of their height and weight was compared by X2 test for trend to that of an age-matched large population (7902 subjects: 3808 females and 4094 males) of primary school from the same district.