All my life I have been healthy, slim and active never had any major health challenges. At the age of 39 I noticed some slight pain in my chest when working hard. So I found a family doctor told him of the pain in my chest. On my first visit the doctor looked me over did a physical said I was in great shape and it must be gas or heartburn. He did find that my total cholesterol was close to 500.  A week or so latter still getting that same pain I saw my doctor a second time but this time he ran an ekg, still my doctor had the same opinion. Finally after a third visit he sent me do get a stress and resting test. With this the doctors found blockage in my heart. I ended up with three stints in one artery of my heart that was blocked as much as 96%. After the stints were put in my cardiologist told me that no matter even if I turned totally vegetarian I would still have too high cholesterol count and if I did change my diet to vegetarian it would only drop my cholesterol by 20 points. The cardiologist said because my high cholesterol was due to genetics the only thing to help me is drugs. I am taking 80 mg Lipitor, 10 mg Zetia and 325 mg aspirin. With the meds my bad cholesterol is close to 160 and the ratios are normal. My doctor recently prescribed 2, 500 mg Niacin twice a day. Since my normal cholesterol is around 500 should I continue on Statins or is their another option? I am now 45 years old and my last stress test about three months ago showed no problems whatsoever.  

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