When, at the tender age of 37, my doctor said I should consider going on statins, I instead began researching how to lower LDL cholesterol naturally.

(I’m a bit of a rebel.)

I’m genetically predisposed to high cholesterol from both sides of my family, and my father is on statins. Over the years my cholesterol, despite my generally healthy lifestyle and longevity routine, had been steadily ticking upwards. By 2024 it was finally in “uh, maybe it’s time to start worrying about this” territory.

That’s when my NMR lipid panel (a more accurate longevity biomarker test than a normal lipid panel because it can show LDL-P, or LDL particle number) found my total cholesterol was 255 mg/dL and my LDL was at a worrying 174 mg/dL.

My GP, as I mentioned, wanted to write me a prescription for statins (“something something, hammer, nail”), but the only prescription drug I’ve been on before is the occasional sumatriptan for migraines, and I didn’t want to be on a daily prescription medication for the rest of my life.

So I used the skill I’ve been honing over the years of writing this blog and Did My Own Research™.

I first cataloged my current daily routine, including schedule, supplements, diet, and activity.

I then did a deep dive into PubMed for everything that could impact cholesterol, sifting through hundreds of studies and meta-analyses.

I researched my current routine to see how it was impacting my markers, then dug into possible fixes, checked the safety of each of those, and finally came up with a plan that I wrote down and sent to my doctor.

She was on board with my plan as laid out, and so I implemented it rigorously over the next year and, well, I think the results speak for themselves!

Now, the downside to this approach is it’s impossible to isolate which change(s) had the most, or even any, impact. 

Had I truly wanted to be scientific about it I would have introduced each change one-at-a-time, run it for a few months, done another NMR lipid panel test, and adjusted. However, in the real-world time and money are limited, and I wanted a big change, so I took a kitchen-sink approach and tried everything all-at-once.

It seems to have worked for me, and hopefully some of the things I did can work for you too, so, without further ado:

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What I did to lower my cholesterol without statins

In my quest to lower LDL cholesterol naturally I first had to start with my existing routine, and that began with my morning coffee.

1. Replace coffee and cream with green or white tea

There is a lot of research suggesting coffee is a longevity intervention. In fact, we covered most of it right here in an article on coffee and living longer! 

Coffee seems to lower all-cause mortality, reduce risk for certain cancers, improve blood vessel function, and has all manner of other great health effects.

But, it may also raise cholesterol.

Now, there is a nuance here, because not all types of coffee do this. The main culprits seem to be boiled and unfiltered coffee, such as you get from a French press or Turkish coffee preparation.

According to a 2001 meta analysis of 14 studies on coffee consumption, “Consumption of unfiltered, but not filtered, coffee increases serum levels of total and LDL cholesterol.”

And the method I had been using to make coffee every morning? 

French press. In other words, unfiltered.

Luckily, there’s a great longevity-friendly alternative to morning coffee that didn’t require me to buy a big coffee machine and filters: green tea.

(Or yes, just switching to a pour over with paper filters also works.)

You can check out my in-depth guide on green tea and longevity but the tl;dr is you get the caffeine boost in the mornings, plus tons of healthy polyphenols, L-theanine to smooth out the caffeine jitters, all without the risk of raising LDL.

Plus I love the taste and don’t need to smother it with cream or other ingredients to mask the flavor like with coffee, just a little bit of allulose.

Don’t @ me coffee bros.

2. Return to intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast

This change is likely to be more controversial, and also probably the one with the most individual variability (especially for women). Even our own article is somewhat ambivalent on the benefits of intermittent fasting for longevity.

But for me, my cholesterol numbers were always better in the years I was practicing intermittent fasting. 

In 2024 I had fallen away from intermittent fasting both because I was trying to gain some muscle by eating more and practicing resistance training, and because I’d discovered, while researching for this website, that the best time to have calories is typically in the morning.

For instance, this 2019 paper concludes, “[E]ating in sync with circadian rhythms by eating early in the daytime appears to reduce body weight and improve metabolic health.”

Unfortunately, with the way our society is structured, it’s almost impossible not to eat dinner. I tried switching from skipping breakfast to skipping dinner, but found this schedule socially unworkable. 

So in practice, I went from skipping breakfast to eating three meals a day.

But it turns out there is some good research suggesting intermittent fasting lowers cholesterol, such as this 2024 umbrella review, which found, “[Intermittent fasting] reduced waist circumference…fat mass…low-density lipoprotein cholesterol…[and] total cholesterol.”

And a 2022 study that concluded, “[I]ntermittent fasting diet intervention effectively reduced the total cholesterol level by 0.32 mmol/L, low-density lipoprotein level by 0.22 mmol/L, and triglyceride level by 0.04 mmol/L.”

So I went back to skipping breakfast, and only eating a healthy lunch and dinner.

3. Replace lunch with a high-fiber longevity smoothie

Pretty much every article about “top foods to improve cholesterol” lists the same ones, and the research around these is also pretty uniform.

A representative systematic review from 2021 is explicit; foods that caused LDL decreases include:

• High soluble fiber foods, like oats, barley, and psyllium
• Soy protein
• Tomatoes
• Flaxseeds
• Almonds
• Avocados
• Turmeric
• Pulses
• Hazelnuts
• Walnuts
• Green tea

Luckily, there’s a lot of overlap between these foods and general top longevity foods, so it’s easy enough to incorporate them into a longevity diet. In fact, a lot of them are already present in a ready-made longevity recipe from influencer Bryan Johnson: his nutty pudding.

I make a variant of this every day now (I add in olive oil and a probiotic European-style yogurt) and have it for lunch and, in addition to “keeping things regular” I do think it’s also positively impacted my LDL numbers.

(Yes, I eat the same lunch practically every day. No, it doesn’t get boring.)

I track all my meals with Cronometer, which was developed by longevity enthusiasts as a way to ensure optimum nutrition when practicing caloric restriction!

4. Increase psyllium husk consumption

Speaking of keeping things regular…

I had already been taking a teaspoon of whole psyllium husks mixed with water every day as a result of reading some studies shared in my favorite longevity Facebook group, but when I researched how to lower cholesterol naturally, I decided to up my intake even more.

That’s because there’s a lot of good research on psyllium, which is a soluble fiber, and reduction of LDL cholesterol.

Take this 2018 study, which notes, “10.2 g psyllium significantly reduced LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, and apoB.”

Or this 2000 study, which found, “Serum total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations were 4.7% and 6.7% lower in the psyllium group than in the placebo group.”

Both studies used about 10g of psyllium husk a day, which is around 1-2 tablespoons, so I rounded up to two tablespoons a day. It might be best to space these out, but I take them all at once.

I use the NOW brand of whole psyllium husks and mix it with water (make sure to chug it down fast or it turns to sludge!).

5. Start taking berberine for cholesterol

You can’t be in the longevity space for any length of time without hearing, at least tangentially, about berberine.

It’s often referred to as “the poor man’s metformin.”

(It’s not. I made that up.) 

BUT it does share a lot of similarities with metformin (a blood-sugar-lowering drug prescribed for diabetics that may extend lifespan and is the subject of the Targeting Aging with Metformin or TAME trial) and thus it gets a lot of discussion in longevity circles.

So I was pleasantly surprised during my research to find that berberine is actually better than metformin at lowering cholesterol, at least according to several studies.

A 2005 study found that “berberine hydrochloride (0.5 g [twice a day] for 3 months) reduced LDL-cholesterol (from 3.2 to 2.4 mmol/l).”

So I now take two, 0.5 g berberine supplements per day, one right before each meal.

I take NOW brand berberine, which scored 100% in a 3rd party test on which brands actually contained berberine.

Also, I’m sure this is just placebo, but my body felt weirdly “clean” after I first started taking berberine for cholesterol. Your mileage may vary.

6. Start taking red yeast rice for cholesterol

Edit: A lot of folks on Reddit and Facebook have been suggesting that red yeast rice contains monacolin K, which is chemically identical to a statin called lovastatin. However, in the U.S. (where I buy my supplements) the FDA has declared monacolin K a drug, and banned supplement makers from including it in their red yeast rice products. It thus seems highly unlikely my LDL reduction results are a result of taking a statin compound.

Another supplement that kept coming up in my research on reducing cholesterol naturally was red yeast rice.

According to a bunch of studies, this supplement works like statins, while seeming to have little if any of the side effects or risk.

For example, a 2024 meta-analysis found, “The consumption of [red yeast rice] extract…was associated with statistically significant reduction in total cholesterol and LDL-C, whereas it was not associated with an increase in life-threatening side effects.”

A 2022 meta-analysis found red yeast rice was actually better than statins at lowering triglycerides and comparable in lowering LDL, and that it was safe up to 4800 mg daily.

So I now take two, 1200 mg red yeast rice supplement capsules per day, one right before each meal.

I take Nature’s Craft brand of red yeast rice for cholesterol.

7. Add in high EPA fish oil for cholesterol

EPA is an omega-3 fatty acid present in high amounts in fish oil. Salmon, of course, is a key component of the longevity-promoting Mediterranean diet.

It’s also the main ingredient tested in the 2018 REDUCE-IT trial, which found that over five years, 2 g of EPA daily reduced “ischemic events” (like stroke) and cardiovascular death significantly compared to placebo.

A 2023 meta analysis suggested 2 g/day of fish oil improved triglyceride numbers.

And a 2021 meta-analysis found that EPA, more than DHA in omega-3, reduced cardiovascular mortality and improved cardiovascular outcomes.

I started taking Carlyle Antarctic Krill Oil brand (because I’m interested in the astaxanthin as well, since it seems to be a dog longevity supplement), but have since switched to two capsules per day of Carlson Elite EPA brand, which has a higher EPA to DHA ratio and which I take before meals.

8. Add in curcumin for cholesterol

Curcumin/turmeric is not just a tasty spice in curries.

It’s also apparently pretty good at improving cholesterol.

A 2023 meta-analysis found, “curcumin may be beneficial in reducing [triglycerides], [total cholesterol], and LDL levels.”

And a more recent 2025 umbrella review (kind of a meta-analysis of meta-analyses) concluded, “Curcumin significantly reduced [total cholesterol], LDL-c, and [triglycerides].”

It’s not very bioavailable, unfortunately, so you can’t just rely on dietary amounts when used as a spice to get the amount you need.

I take one capsule of NOW brand curcumin before bed. It has added piperine (black pepper extract) to increase its absorption.

9. Take citrus bergamot extract to lower LDL naturally

Despite being a big fan of Earl Gray tea, I’d never really heard of citrus bergamot until I researched how to lower my cholesterol without statins.

Bergamot is a type of bitter citrus fruit whose extract gives Earl Gray its distinct flavor.

Its extract has also been studied as a way to improve cholesterol numbers.

This 2019 study first caught my interest by finding that, “Bergamot juice extract supplementation significantly reduced plasma lipids and improved the lipoprotein profile.”

Another 2016 mini-review reported, “The results of five different clinical trials using bergamot in various forms suggest the polyphenol fraction can lower LDL-C and total cholesterol.”

Since several studies referenced in the review found the best results at 1,000 mg of bergamot daily, I take two, 500 mg bergamot supplements per day, one right before each meal.

I take Nutricost brand.

Supplements to AVOID

I did find some supplements that are often recommended for naturally lowering cholesterol, but which I decided against taking personally for health reasons.

Niacin

This B vitamin is also a commonly-recommended longevity supplement. It may have a similar effect on NAD+ levels as things like NMN and other supplements recommended by longevity experts such as David Sinclair.

However I’ve always been a bit wary about this family of supplements, especially since they’ve been known to preferentially feed certain existing cancers you may have. And despite the advances in tests for detecting cancer early, it’s still a roll of the dice I’m personally not comfortable with.

So I didn’t take much convincing after finding this 2024 study suggesting that too much niacin can increase cardiovascular disease risk.

I reached out to the study authors (side note: you can just email scientists about their research!) and they confirmed that there’s really no way to know what a “safe” dose of niacin is that wouldn’t cause overflow production of harmful 4PY byproduct.

Plant sterols

This supplement turned up a few times in my research on lowering LDL naturally, and I didn’t really know anything about it.

I found some conflicting information on its safety, including this 2023 review, which noted, 

“Compelling evidence from recent genetic studies have also linked elevated plasma concentrations of circulating plant sterols with [atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease] presence, thus raising concerns about the safety of phytosterol supplementation.”

Since that review also claimed, “Data on the safety of plant-sterol supplementation derived from long-term clinical trials do not exist,” I decided against adding these into my cholesterol-lowering supplement stack until there’s more research done.

My full cholesterol-lowering stack, plus dosages and timing

Ok, here’s the tl;dr on how I lowered my LDL naturally, without statins:

• Replace unfiltered morning coffee with green tea
• Practice 16:8 intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast
• Eat a high-fiber “nutty pudding” for lunch each day
• Take two tbsp psyllium husks with water each day (before a meal may be best)
• Before each of two daily meals, take:
  • 0.5 g berberine
  • 1200 mg red yeast rice
  • 1000 mg high EPA fish oil
  • 500 mg citrus bergamot
• Before bed, take 650 mg turmeric with piperine

Now let’s take a look at that sexy chart again to see the results after 12 months:

And there you have it. 

Any feedback on this stack or recommendations? 

Add them in the comments!