Dietary fiber and coronary artery disease.

Ischemic coronary disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and exerts a tremendous cost burden to the health care system. Hypercholesterolemia has been shown to be one of the major risk factors of artherosclerosis, which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Over the past 3 decades, a variety of epidemiological, animal studies and human (clinical) trials have demonstrated the preventive and therapeutic benefits of dietary fibers on hypercholesterolemia and the reduction of mortality rate from CAD. To review the data, hopefully this article can draw more public attention to dietary fibers given their beneficial effects and relatively low side-effect profile. Diet modification should be the initial approach to the clinical management of hypercholesterolemia.