[Evans, Marv]

Medication is the only thing that did it for me. The first time I had my cholesterol level checked in my early 30's, total was 282. I was put on a Mevacor for a few years with no change, so the doc said there was no benefit in taking it & took me off of it. My level went up from there to 320 over the years. My HDL was always in the mid 50s range and the rest was LDL. My current doc put me on something (don't remember what) some years ago, and it reduced the total level to the mid 200s. Later on he put me on Vytorin which lowered my total level down to an amazing 115 at which time I had one of those really bad reactions to it and stopped that. Currently I'm on Atorvastatin which keeps it around 230 with an HDL still in the 50s. Some people genetically tend toward high levels. I've never been overweight, always been active and ate reasonably well. I tried a low fat diet in the past for a period of time to no avail. My advice is to always eat well, get some exercise, avoid the obvious problem foods, but medication is sometimes the only thing for some people.