Oleic Acid + Colesevelam

Oleic Acid has 86 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Colesevelam isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

We haven’t checked that one against Oleic Acid yet — ask our pharmacists directly.

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Oleic Acid. Pick one to open its full report.

At least one FDA label for a product containing Colesevelam says to take it with food. If you take Oleic Acid on an empty stomach out of habit, keep them separate — and take Colesevelam with a meal where the label says to.

This may not be true of your version. Food instructions belong to the product, not the ingredient: two Colesevelam products can carry different directions, and extended-release forms often differ from immediate-release ones. The label we read is quoted below — check the directions on your own box or bottle, or ask your pharmacist, for how to take the exact product you were given.

A food rule is not an interaction — it is about how much of the medicine you absorb. The directions that came with your own product, and your pharmacist, outrank anything on this page.

These two come up together because they touch the same health topic — not because they do the same job. Colesevelam is a prescription medicine with approved uses on its FDA label. Oleic Acid is a supplement: what follows is what researchers have looked at it for, and how strong that evidence is.

Colesevelam is prescribed for: Colesevelam is used alongside diet and exercise to reduce high LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) in adults with primary hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol). It is also approved to lower LDL cholesterol in boys and girls aged 10–17 who have heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) — an inherited condition that causes very high cholesterol — when diet and lifestyle changes alone haven't worked. Colesevelam tablets and oral suspension (Welchol and colesevelam hydrochloride products) are also used to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes, as an add-on to diet and exercise. Colesevelam is not for type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis.

Oleic Acid has been studied for:

• Hypercholesterolemia Natural Medicines rates the evidence for Oleic Acid: Possibly Effective Read what the research shows

  Oleic Acid for hypercholesterolemia

  Evidence from small studies shows that consuming oils rich in oleic acid as part of the diet in place of other dietary fats may improve cholesterol levels. Preliminary clinical research in patients with hypercholesterolemia shows that consuming oleic acid as part of a high oleic sunflower oil- or high oleic canola oil-rich diet for 3-4 weeks decreases total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels by a mo…

  4 sources cited

  1. 21698. Gillingham, L. G., Gustafson, J. A., Han, S. Y., Jassal, D. S., and Jones, P. J. High-oleic rapeseed (canola) and flaxseed oils modulate serum lipids and inflammatory biomarkers in hypercholesterolaemic subjects. Br J Nutr 2011;105(3):417-427. PubMed ↗
  2. 26466. Jones PJ, Senanayake VK, Pu S, Jenkins DJ, Connelly PW, Lamarche B, Couture P, Charest A, Baril-Gravel L, West SG, Liu X, Fleming JA, McCrea CE, Kris-Etherton PM. DHA-enriched high-oleic acid canola oil improves lipid profile and lowers predicted cardiova
  3. 67569. Cater, N. B., Heller, H. J., and Denke, M. A. Comparison of the effects of medium-chain triacylglycerols, palm oil, and high oleic acid sunflower oil on plasma triacylglycerol fatty acids and lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in humans. Am.J Clin.Nutr PubMed ↗
  4. 101821. Bowen KJ, Kris-Etherton PM, West SG, et al. Diets enriched with conventional or high-oleic acid canola oils lower atherogenic lipids and lipoproteins compared to a diet with a western fatty acid profile in adults with central adiposity. J Nutr. 2019;149(3 PubMed ↗
• Diabetes studied, not established Oleic Acid has been studied for this. Natural Medicines rates the evidence: Insufficient Reliable Evidence To Rate Read what the research shows

  Oleic Acid for diabetes

  A small clinical trial in patients with type 2 diabetes shows that taking oleic acid as part of a low-fat diet containing 15% monounsaturated fatty acids for 3 weeks does not alter levels of total or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol or the change in LDL oxidation when compared with taking linoleic acid as part of a low-fat diet containing 15% polyunsaturated fatty acids.

  1 source cited

  1. 101847. Higashi K, Shige H, Ito T, et al. Effect of a low-fat diet enriched with oleic acid on postprandial lipemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Lipids. 2001;36(1):1-6. PubMed ↗

Effectiveness ratings and the research summaries above are the verbatim record from the Natural Medicines database, which grades evidence from “Effective” down to “Insufficient Reliable Evidence To Rate”. A rating below the top of that scale means researchers have looked at it — not that it works, and never that it can stand in for a prescribed medicine. Do not stop or replace Colesevelam on your own; if you are taking Oleic Acid for the same health topic, tell your prescriber, especially if the medicine is being adjusted to a target.

These are real questions from readers, answered by the pharmacists at HelloPharmacist — written by a person, not generated from a database. Each one covers Oleic Acid or Colesevelam, not necessarily both, but if one is close to what you were about to ask it will usually go further than a database entry can:

• Why Shouldn't Colestipol Be Crushed? Answered by Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD · May 2025 ›
• Is Welchol Safe To Take With Pomegranate Extract? Answered by Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD · March 2023 ›

Not quite your question? Ask our pharmacists directly — it is free, there is no account required, and answers usually come back within 24 hours.

This page covers Oleic Acid only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Colesevelam page lists 17 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Activated Charcoal (major), Coffee Charcoal (moderate), European Mandrake (moderate), Glucomannan (moderate) and Guar Gum (moderate).

By severity: 1 major · 7 moderate · 9 minor.

Open the Colesevelam interaction page ›

We hold 1,803 real supplement products containing Oleic Acid, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Oleic Acid. Even though Oleic Acid itself has no known interaction with Colesevelam, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.