I don´t take none of the conventional crap doctors try to shove down your throats.You have to change your eating habits.People want to sit and gorge on dripping fat foods then take a pill to fix it.

Now they have a study claiming 25000 deaths on sugary drinks.I guess if you drink 200 oz´s of dr.pepper a day it´s possible but it can´t be the exclusive reason.These studies are all to condition the public to accept bans.

I can´t tell you how many times drs have tried to make me take statins. Yeah, my cholesterol is ´high´ at today´s accepted values, but I refuse them. My numbers haven´t basically changed in 30 years. And, I´ve had hepatitis and virtually all of them warn about liver problems. So, I´ll take my chances with the cholesterol.

Statins will never pass my lips. I take one blood pressure pill a day and am trying to get off that as well by changing my diet and losing weight.

FTA: "In some cases, patients may be exposed to unnecessary risk of kidney damage for small gains in cardiovascular health."

To which the pharma said, "But it´s big gains in profit. We couldn´t care less whatever else is going on. Go away."

#1 has a way of cutting to the chase.

I´m trying juicing to help me correct my problems. So far, so good.

Try watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on netflix for a real eye opener.

The body can probably heal itself of most things if we´d help it a little bit but we don´t. French fries taste too good. In fact, I´d like some right now.

I´m 60 years old, 5´5" and weigh 117 pounds. I might as well be a vegetarian as I eat meat so rarely. I´m very careful about the fat and sugar I consume. Without statins, my cholesterol was around 316. It´s heredity - my mother died of heart failure due to horribly clogged arteries at age 66. Diet can only do so much. I take the minimum dosage of Lipitor and my cholesterol is now under 200. I´ve been taking it for several years with no side effects. Everyone is different. You can´t condemn the medication across the board.

Part of the problem lies with doctors´ wanting a one-size-fits-all answer to everything. (Kind of like the government.) Pick a number and apply it across the board. A magic pill is the answer for everything. Sadly many patients demand that kind of easy answer as well.

this is not new.. Why do you think doctors MONITOR you when you are on statins? You need the blood tests regularily when you are medicated. Duh .. Evil pharma is merely another liberal shibboleth to hate..

#8, when statins first came out I believe the level at which you should take statins was 230. Then it went to 220. I understand the current level is 200. When will it go to 190, I wonder?

But, of course, if you´re diabetic then the medical folks want you to take a "low" dose of statin anyway, no matter if your cholesterol is below the (current) red line because you´re prone to heart disease. (Never mind that you exercise three times a week and watch what you eat.) I´m sticking with the red yeast rice. It works. Oh, and don´t forget the Co-Q-10 if you take statins OR RYR.

Someone once asked me if I knew where pravastatin was made.

I said sure - - Pravastatin Island.

I´m with #6 - when I was in my mid 30s a yearly checkup with an executive blood panel showed my cholesterol was 499. At that time you had to DRINK the medicine and it was so horrid I would throw most of it back up. I´ve been on every statin but they all make me feel like I have the flu ater a few days - achy and tired. I take them about 2 or 3 months, my cholesterol goes back to below 200 and then my liver enzymes go up. I get off until my cholesterol is nearly 300 and then go back on lowest dose possible for a few months. My father died at 42 of a massive heart attack. All of my siblings and I have high cholesterol. I rarely eat steak - just don´t care for it. My husband eats the fat off any meat I eat plus the fat off his own meat plus bacon and eggs every morning. He weighs just a bit over 300 lbs. His cholesterol is 110. Yep - for a lot of people it´s hereditary.

Why are people not intelligent enough to know that each body has a different chemical makeup. Thus what is good for one body may kill another. Like pills, an example is one person can take aspirin and it would kill another person, This is why they are hard on kids at school from passing seemly harmless pills around.

I don´t tell anyone to take such and such pill for any perceived illness. Tell them to see their doctor and see if such and such pill would help them. Did you know the simple act of telling someone to take certain medicines or whatever for their heath is practicing medicine without a license? I didn´t either until I saw it as a case one time.

Someone once told me, go ahead and take all the pills you want, diet all you want, exercise all you want but you´re gonna die anyway. I said but what about living longer? He said, you want to live longer with all the crap going on today? Hmmmmm.

I´ve been taking krill oil (fish oil pills were too big and difficult to swallow) and my cholesterol has dropped 40 points. My wife was on statins but after seeing my results has recently switched to krill.

Wonder if the krill oil mentioned in response #13 are the "MegaRed" supplements from Schiff (they´re kind of pricey, but I take one every day)?

Look at the line for the rise Alzheimers incidence and the line for use of statins parallels it. Since no one is looking it won´t be mentioned. Ignore this correlation at your risk.

I trust my doctor,have been watching my diet, lost a lot of weight over the last six months, and being diabetic, my sugar is now in tight control. That being said, my lipid panel, two weeks ago was not very good, especially the *good cholesterol*. My doctor called me personally, and said since I am diabetic she wanted to try me on the lowest dose of Zocor, 10mg. I´m giving it a try, she´s monitoring me closely. It messes with my stomach, and makes my muscles hurt for a couple hours after I take it, even with food, but so far I am living with it. Hopefully, as the weight continues to come off, the numbers will improve, but I think family history is playing a role here, too.