There is some great info in this thread! Copying and pasting. My cholesterol has been stellar, but DH has a familial issue. He's been on Lipitor for years, now just switched to Vytorin. We'll see with the next blood test if it had any results. I'm another one who cooks only with EVOO or a bit of canola or grapeseed when absolutely necessary. You know that I don't add butter to any recipe that I'll be eating, nor do we use much butter or margarine here. DH give up eating cheese, but he prefers the harder types such as swiss or manchego as opposed to Brie. He likes it as a lo-carb/hi protein snack. He drinks his coffee black and uses 1% milk with his oatmeal. He primarily eats skinless white meat chicken, lean cuts of beef or salmon most of the time. Apples, he could do w/o but maybe spread with almond butter. One thing that we don't do w/o transfats is peanut butter. We buy the lower fat variety, but it has to be Skippy! What I haven't seen mentioned here, and Linda, this would be beneficial for you, is that the statin drugs--Lipitor in particular--may have some effect in reducing tumors of the colon. If that's the case, it may not be such a bad drug to take. Sometimes, I think we fight taking a pill, just because we want to do it "naturally" with niacin etc. but it's not the best choice. I definitely believe in diet and exercise, but in many cases like Annie's or DH's or Sharon's, it's genetics, plain and simple. So fight it with the entire arsenal!

no problem cheerful :) HDL can be tricky when youre trying to lower your cholesterol because often what happens is you try to cut out all fat and also proteins to lower your chol, but that can really drive your HDL down. that's a trap that I fell into and I think lots of other people do too. I was so frustrated trying to get my chol down and my HDL just went from very low to lower but when I started seeing a dietician I got some excellent advice, and my results really turned around. There is so much confusing advice out there, a lot of what I learned really surprised me because it was totally different to things I'd read. My husband has always eaten the same things as me and his cholesterol has always been near perfect, except his HDL dropped a bit too but has came back up after we started with the olive oil as well. My chol results are very good now except for the apoB one (which is an additional chol test that not all doctors check) and that's still up a bit, but once that comes down I'll be off the crestor (statin) medication.

Vytorin is a combination of two anti cholesterol drugs. Simvastatin (Zocor) and Zetia. It is the Zetia that is under question. Seems that the drug company that developed zetia is now saying that studies have shown it to be uneffective in lowering heart attack risk caused by a build up of plaque in the arteries. It is a little more complicated than that. Read the info on the site below to better understand what is really the problem. Here is a link that might be useful: Vytorin?Zetia

Hi Yes that could possibly be happening esp if you are sensitive on hormones. I have just come off my Activella (4 months now) and only just realizing how sensitive my body was while on them. Only just starting to feel myself again, such a slow progress. Go well.