I haven't read all the reponses but my family and I have always had high cholesterol. I took provalcol for a while but it barely moved the needle. Then, I had a bout of diverticulitus that put me in the hospital for four days.

Well, to keep from having another flare-up of diverticulitus the Dr. put me on Metamucil. Well, I'll try to not get too gross, but there have been a lot of benefitual side-effects including, for the first time in my adult life my cholesterol has been under 200, I never have the emergency poops after eating a greasy lunch and I almost don't need any "striking" paper. I wish I had started taking it years ago.