[masraum]

Originally Posted by JavaBrewer

Haha, since my mid 20's I had high cholesterol. Very active in sports, lean muscle, minimal body fat. I was checking in in the mid 200's. In my 40's I checked in mid 300's. Went on a statin, large dose, and months later tested in the mid 200's. Tried the niacin etc and did not do anything for me. In my mid 50's I was reading online some med stuff and said "screw it" and went off my statins. A year later I went in for my annual and my cholesterol was almost 400! I am back on statins and I'm keeping it around 270 or so. I eat exactly what my wife does and she is clocking in at 120. So for me its just hereditory and not much I can do about it.

I've heard that some folks have high chol due to genetics. My mom says hers is always high. I think she's said that her mother's is also often/usually high. My great grandmother lived into her 90s. My grandmother is going to be 99 in Dec. So clearly, if they have high chol., it's not a problem for them.

I've also heard that there are other factors in cholesterol besides just LDL and HDL to consider. The Dr that I went to did some sort of test that was supposed to determine the size of your chol and that was another factor. I can't remember if smaller particles were worse or larger particles. I feel like the ones that he thought were worst were small particles because they were more likely to work into the lining of the circulation system or something.

Clearly in your case, the statins aren't lowing your chol levels until they are dangerously low, impacting your cognition or other things (which seems to happen with some folks).