Originally Posted by
Lon Kilgore
Putting someone on anti-cholesterolemic drugs after one test that shows a marginally above normal result is wrong. A series of tests separated by weeks is required to truly establish the presence of hypercholesterolemia. When hypercholesterolemia is authentic then diet and exercise behavior modification should be the first prescription. If those turn out to be ineffective over a period of a few months, then prescription therapy should then be considered.
I also find it interesting that in a huge number of clinical laboratory tests, the results need to differ from "normal" by two standard deviations in order to be considered a medical problem. I'm pretty certain that this is not the case in cholesterol measurement.
High cholesterol is associated with premature death over time, it is not an emergency condition that any research I know of says will kill you tomorrow. That means a GP and someone with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia has time to address the situation properly prior to prescribing statins.