I'm 55. I share high cholesterol with my father and siblings. In my 20s I swam every morning and my cholesterol was perfect. Then I began bike commuting in my late 20s. I stopped riding daily for a year after getting married (I was in love...and still am!) and my cholesterol and triglycerides shot up very high. With daily bike commuting and some minor diet modifications (including plain oatmeal every morning) my cholesterol hovered a fair amount over the high side of okay. The doctor I had then kept ratcheting up my Zocor...up to 80mg which helped somewhat. Then I changed doctors. The new doctor said 80mg for slightly high cholesterol was ridiculous and possibly dangerous. He dropped me back down to 20mg and told me to take 1200mg of D3 fish oil pills daily. That worked better than the 80mg Zocor. Currently I take three 1200mg fish oil pills a day, 20 mg of Zocor at night, cut down on my lunch portions and eat a tin of tuna 3 times a week with lunch. I also snack on low fat/low salt popcorn and low salt mixed nuts and I eat more salads and fish. Now my cholesterol is in the target range. Of course your "mileage" may vary.