I've decided to take the cholesterol medicine since my numbers are so extremely high, but I'm cutting the pills in half and taking them every other day instead of every day, which ends up being one quarter of the prescribed dose. I researched it a lot first and will be interested to see from my next blood work what the numbers are. I'm not going to tell my doctor I decreased their prescribed dose until after I see what the blood work shows. But all the trials and studies I read about reported that a greatly decreased dose could be effective with fewer side effects.