Cholesterol patients look to lifestyle, diet changes instead of drugs

"In a single morning recently, Phoenix, Arizona, cardiologist Edward Diethrich saw four patients who wanted to talk about alternatives to cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. With more than 13 million Americans taking statins, at times with troubling side effects, such conversations are becoming increasingly common. High cholesterol is a key risk factor for heart attack and stroke, and efforts to lower blood levels of the fatty substance have turned statins such as Lipitor and Zocor into the top-selling class of prescription drugs in the United States. 'There's rising interest in being able to accomplish the same goals without statins,' says Diethrich, founder of the Arizona Heart Institute. 'Everybody's asking about this'" - Binghamton Press