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• You’ve six months to work on your diet to see if that’ll bring down your levels, then you’ll review your options.
• But there’s some good evidence that taking particular supplements, while also eating a healthy diet, can make a difference.

Why are we so worried about cholesterol?

• Low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol This is often called “bad” cholesterol.
• This lipoprotein helps remove excess cholesterol from the bloodstream and transports it back to the liver for processing and excretion.
• Diet can play a key role in reducing blood cholesterol levels, especially LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

Fibre is your friend

• An additional way to significantly reduce your total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels through diet is by eating more soluble fibre.
• This is a type of fibre that dissolves in water to form a gel-like substance in your gut.

Fibre supplements, such as psyllium

There are also many fibre supplements and food-based products on the market that may help lower cholesterol. These include:
• Psyllium is the fibre supplement with the strongest evidence to support its use in improving cholesterol levels.
• These trials show consuming about 10g of psyllium a day (1 tablespoon), as part of a healthy diet, can significantly lower total cholesterol levels by 4% and LDL cholesterol levels by 7%.

Probiotics

• Probiotics are thought to help lower cholesterol levels via a number of mechanisms.
• Using probiotics to reduce cholesterol is an upcoming area of interest and the research is promising.
• Most of these studies use probiotics containing Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis, which come in capsules or powders and are consumed daily.

Red yeast rice

• Red yeast rice is another non-fibre supplement that has gained attention for lowering cholesterol.
• It found taking red yeast rice supplements (200-4,800mg a day) was more effective for lowering blood fats known as triglycerides but less effective at lowering total cholesterol compared with statins.
• However, these trials don’t tell us if red yeast rice works and is safe in the long term.

Diet and supplements may not be enough

• Always speak to your GP and dietitian about your plan to take supplements to lower your cholesterol.
• But remember, dietary changes alone – with or without supplements – might not be enough to lower your cholesterol levels sufficiently.
• Even then, depending on your cholesterol levels and other risk factors, you may still be recommended cholesterol-lowering medications, such as statins.