In this video Dr. Ashley Frazee, a board‑certified physician running a direct primary‑care clinic, explains why many patients might want to avoid statins and presents four natural strategies to lower cholesterol. She first outlines when cholesterol reduction is medically warranted—highlighting risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, or a family history of heart disease—versus situations where it may be less critical. She then details four evidence‑based approaches: (1) increasing dietary fiber to about 30 g per day (via vegetables or supplements) while warning about gastrointestinal side effects; (2) consuming 1–2 oz of nuts daily, which provide unsaturated fats, soluble fiber, and plant sterols and can reduce LDL by roughly 10 %; (3) adding 2–3 g of plant sterol supplements split into two doses with meals to block cholesterol absorption, also yielding about a 10 % LDL drop; and (4) using red yeast rice (600–1,200 mg daily) as a lovastatin‑like supplement that can lower LDL by ~20 % but may have side effects, so it should be paired with coenzyme Q10. She wraps these components into the “portfolio diet,” which combines fiber, nuts, plant sterols, and soy protein (the latter’s hormonal impact is noted as uncertain) and can lower cholesterol up to 20 %. Throughout, Dr. Frazee stresses the importance of individualized risk assessment and consulting one’s own physician before making changes, clarifying that the video is informational, not medical advice.
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I'm a board-certified medical doctor, and for the past 6 years I've been working directly for my patients to tell them truths about what can actually help them with their health versus what insurance would want them to do. Now, many of my patients have terrible cholesterol, and I'm on a mission to sabotage that without putting them on a statin medication. Why? Because statins have side effects— muscle pain, brain fog, weakness. Why would I want anyone to have to tolerate those kinds of side effects? So today I'm going to show you 4 easy ways to lower your cholesterol naturally before your doctor prescribes a statin. Now, why would we want to lower your cholesterol, you might be thinking? Because there's been some news out there lately where you might have heard that cholesterol is actually a good thing, and it is. But the bottom line is that you have to take your risk into consideration. If you're a bodybuilder or an athlete and you have high cholesterol but you don't have high blood pressure, diabetes, or a parent with heart disease, then have this discussion with your doctor and talk to them about how you don't have any of the other risks that would require lowering your cholesterol. But if you're not the picture of health and you've got something like diabetes or high blood pressure, or a parent or a sibling who's had issues with heart disease, heart attacks, or stroke, then you really need to have that conversation too. And honestly, if your risk is really high, then we need to get your cholesterol more manageable. All right, so here are those 4 things I was talking about. Let's start with the least sexy of them all— fiber. I know nutrition experts and doctors are always talking about getting more fiber, but it really does lower your cholesterol. You need to aim for 30 grams of fiber a day. The best way to do that is with vegetables and fibrous foods, but if you're like me and you struggle to get enough veggies in every day, then a fiber supplement will do. Again, you want to aim for about 30 grams a day if you can get it in. Ease into it. Too much fiber too fast will cause a lot of stomach discomfort. So just be careful and drink a lot of water when you increase your fiber. This next one's easy. It actually helps you get that fiber goal in, and it is eat nuts. Not like a squirrel, just 1 to 2 ounces or 1 to 2 handfuls of nuts per day can lower your cholesterol. It's been well studied and it will lower cholesterol by about 10%. Nuts work by giving your body healthy unsaturated fats, soluble fiber, and plant sterols, which I'm about to talk about next. The effect isn't massive, but it's steady, and best of all, it's proven. Now you heard me mention plant sterols. These are like a sneaky eat ninja that when you eat them, they compete for cholesterol absorption in your gut. And again, if you're like me and you don't eat a lot of nuts and you don't eat a lot of vegetables, then you can find a supplement for this. 2 to 3 grams of plant sterols split into 2 doses a day, preferably with meals, will help your body block the absorption of cholesterol, especially LDL, and can reduce your cholesterol by about 10%. Now, if your numbers are stubborn and the things I mentioned aren't helping, your doctor's ready to throw that statin at you, this supplement might buy you some time. I'm talking about red yeast rice. Now, the active ingredient in this supplement is the same thing that is used to make a statin called lovastatin. So keep that in mind. It can come with risks. It can come with side effects, but they're much less common. There are some very large studies involving red yeast rice with up to 25,000 people in them showing that 600 to 1,200 milligrams of red yeast rice daily can lower your LDL by about 20 points. And I've seen this happen in real life. I always recommend red yeast rice before I throw a statin at somebody to see what it'll do. And I've seen it work. It's not a guarantee, but you might as well try, right? Now, if you're going to take red yeast rice, you have to take something called coenzyme Q10. It's something that statins will naturally rob your body of, and red yeast rice can do that too. So if you're going to take that supplement, take it with CoQ10. All right, and if that was a lot for you, then you can follow this simple diet that encompasses most of the things that I talked about just now. And the thing I'm talking about is called the portfolio diet. It includes eating fiber, Plant sterols, nuts, and soy protein. Now I know what you're thinking, soy protein, bad for your hormones, but the evidence for that is really murky. And so do your research on that. It's not actually proven to mess with your estrogen as much as you would think. Again, have the conversation with your doctor and see what they think about that. But the portfolio diet is actually known to lower your cholesterol by as much as 20%. So in my opinion, it's worth looking into. In summary, you can lower your cholesterol using supplements and food. You might as well give it a try before jumping into taking a statin. Again, have the conversation with your doctor. This is not meant to be medical advice from me to you. You still need to find your doctor and have that conversation with them because your risks are going to vary depending on your genetics and your family history and your current situation and cholesterol levels. But if your doctor's open to it, you might experiment with some of these things. Take your cholesterol and then implement some of the changes I talked about and then retest your cholesterol again. I've done this with several of my patients. It's really fun to see what happens. I'm Dr. Ashley Frazee. I run a direct primary care clinic in Mesa, Arizona. I'm on a mission to tell everybody that there are doctors that really care about you, and you don't have to use your insurance to pay for them. If you want to learn more about direct primary care, there are links in my description. You guys have a good day.
