For many years I was a racewalker. My doctor was a runner. We both used the same track. I would often see him there and he would "cheer" me on. I always had high cholesterol numbers. But what he told me was that he was going to ignore the numbers because he saw how I exercised and knew my eating habits. He declined to give me statins because he felt it was my body that was making the cholesterol high, not my diet or life style. Flash forward to today. I am 91 years old and in good shape. Good enough to live independently and take care of myself. I still have high cholesterol numbers. I have never taken statins. So go figure.