Thanks, Carolyne, for your appreciation and for sharing your case.

It is actually quite similar to my wife’s, and has some parallels to mine, too.

My wife, postmenopausal, has borderline high total cholesterol, which runs in her family. But her HDL is very high, her body composition at a BMI of barely 20 is similar to yours, far more muscle than fat: around 16%, which is very low for a woman, and which is due to her high-intensity resistance and cardio exercise regimen. No reason to take statins in her case.

My case is a little different, as my total-CH is well within the normal boundaries and my HDL is high (north of 80 mg/dL). I have a family history of heart attacks and strokes, which is one of my main motivators to follow a strict exercise routine (similar to my wife’s, we work out together every day). I have no atherosclerotic lesions (at age 67), and I certainly don’t take statins.

Of course, I can’t advise you what to do. But I can tell you my rationale for not accepting statins neither for my wife nor for myself: as long as endothelial health is pristine, the risk of cholesterol-induced CV events is too small to warrant taking the drugs. It is only when endothelial function becomes noticeably compromised, or when one has a history of CVD events, that statin may help to reduce the risk of an event or event repetition.