I am ashamed to see a medical site perpetuate the marketing myth that LDL cholesterol is "bad" and HDL cholesterol is "good". Pfizer invented the terms and it caught on even with doctors. If your LDL cholesterol is too high the only thing that is bad is your diet! There is currently a plan to give everyone in the world over the age of 50 the "polypill" which contains aspirin, blood pressure pills, vitamins and a statin. Then we can eat as many McDonald's 4 patty burgers and Baskin Robbins large chocolate oreo shakes as we want. (Not really). I did not see the words "healthy diet" and "regular exercise" any where in the article. Please always keep these concepts up front and center.  We have children starting on statins now and that is one group that has never been tested. Kids are growing brain and body and learning huge amounts. The brain and the rest of the body is made of cholesterol. Will statins interfere with those processes? No body knows. If a kid starts a statin at age 8, will he have normal sexual development? Nobody knows. Will she learn and remember normally and get into college? No body knows. You start on a statin, that is every day for the rest of your life. They have only been tested out for 5 years. After that you are on your own. Google statin side effects and you get 346,000 entries. Google health diet and exercise and you get smiles and a pat on the back. Your choice.