Thread: sterols and cholesterol

I saw a commercial on tv for a product to reduce cholesterol, and it's loaded with plant sterols (which for those of you who don't know, are basically the plant equivalent of animals' cholesterol). So, could plant sterols possibly replace cholesterol in cell membranes, but then not do uh...whatever bad thing cholesterol does...in other places in the body? Could that possibly be how this product works?

This is a bit like the case for fish oils, its not fully understood or known for definite if it is beneficial but it does seem to have some effect.