I heard cinnamon capsules work to lower cholesterol. Has anyone heard of this and what are the side effects?

Yes, I've heard it. During a study using powdered cinnamon, in 2003, they found that it had a very moderate effect on lowering blood sugar and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol levels, along with lowering blood sugar- but all in diabetics. Repeat studies haven't repeated the results with the cholesterol though, and they need to do further studies on it. At the moment, they don't consider it to be effective enough to depend on, and nobody knows if it would only relate to those folks with diabetes and high cholesterol, or also those with high cholesterol alone. At the moment, control is best done with diet, exercise and medications. It would be nice if something on the shelf that actually tasted good would work- but at the moment there's just not enough proof or knowledge, and it's not something you can afford to experiment much with on yourself.

You either heard it half right, or were told it half wrong.

If you do a Web search on keywords cinnamon + health + benefits you will get lots of info. You do know you can do that, right? And find accurate first-hand info to answer this kind of question, right? Just checking.

Here is a link to the summary of studies done on cinnamon's health benefits FOR PEOPLE WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES. The results do not apply to everyone else.

The last paragraph says, "Based on these studies, it seems that cinnamon may lower blood glucose, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in people with Type 2 diabetes. The fact that studies so far have involved a small amount of people and have not yet explored the long term benefits of cinnamon, would lead to the conclusion that there may not be enough evidence gathered yet, to support cinnamon as a major player against Type 2. But adding more cinnamon to already healthy lifestyle changes probably wouldn't hurt either."

The real benefits to lowering collateral is a high fiber diet and exercise. Gluco Manen is a good start. and eat more fresh Fruits and Vegetables. Cinnamon has many healing benefits including a fungicide.
Don't let the pill pushing doctors give you antibiotics for everything. Because they are not for 3/4ths the conditions that they claim they are for.