Heart beat

Fiber and statins team up to lower cholesterol

If your cholesterol-lowering statin isn't quite powerful enough to drop your LDL (bad) cholesterol as low as it should go, adding a fiber supplement could give you the edge you need.

In a study at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, volunteers who took 10 milligrams (mg) of simvastatin (Zocor) a day lowered their LDL levels a respectable 29%. In those who took 10 mg of Zocor daily plus 5 mg of soluble fiber in the form of psyllium (Metamucil) three times a day, LDL levels dropped 36% — the same as seen with twice as much Zocor.