Our family has a history of very high ldl, my 92 lb mom would go to over 400 without statins. And she had to have both corotoids cleared. So that being said, I tried red rice yeast, stopped the statins, and told my doc what I was doing. He said we will go 6 months and let the numbers talk. In 6 months I was at 260 I do have high hdl and low trigs, but take the statins, as I have no side affects from them. It isn't worth the risk, but that is just mho