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I have genetically high cholesterol that can't be controlled with diet. I've been on and off statins over the years, and am currently on one along with Zetia. I have never experienced ill effects from it. No one in my family has either.

Genetics have a big impact on cholesterol. I've been vegan or vegetarian for most of my life and had to go on a statin in my early 30s. My dad and his parents suffered similarly. I also had my gallbladder out a few years ago.

People hear that and assume I eat a lot of fatty foods, but I don't. My last dietician actually tried to get me to consume more fat! (and eggs for some reason, despite my repeated reminders that I'm allergic to them lol)

Anyway, I'm at a healthy level and ratio of hdl/ldl now, but my doctor wants to keep me on the statin. I had pretty bad nightly leg pain for the first year or so, but that was the only side effect I can remember

The medical world has a fundamental misunderstanding of cholesterol, it's sources, and effects.

I strongly recommend looking into current research on cholesterol. I first read a paper by a biochemist in the early 90's showing the conventional paradigm of cholesterol was incorrect. There's been a lot of research since then, supporting his work.

Three things I can note from current research: cholesterol levels are largely genetically determined (though can be strongly influenced with diet in some people), cholesterol plaques in the blood stream are starting to seem to be a result of arterial damage and not the cause, and it's starting to become clear that glucose instability is a major cause of this arterial damage.

Sorry I don't have a source at hand, I'll look through my notes and see if I can find some. But there's a lot of research into this in the last 15 years.

I got that diagnosis (high cholesterol) about 10 years ago. I decided to instead try going on a plant-based diet for a few years. That pretty quickly took my bad cholesterol level away down. I've been on a vegetarian diet now (that's pretty heavy on fairly) for several years, and even though my cholesterol level has gone up a bit, it's still not that close to where it was before.

This situation won't work for everyone, for various reasons. But from my experience it's been a feasible alternative, at least in the mid-term. So I thought I'd mention it.