I agree with MRSD.

From what I could glean from the TV report, I believe the subjects of the study, were people who had 'famialial hypercholesteremia'. I also gathered that for these people there was no other effective treatment.

Vytorin does do what ALL the other statins drugs do: lowers cholesterol.

Zetia is a good alternative for statin intolerant people.

From what I gathered none of the other drugs promised any better results for people with 'familial hypercholesteremia'.

As MRSD says, with studies, it is really important to look at WHO does them, at WHICH population they use for the study, and HOW that study was conducted, and did they draw reasonable conclusions from it.

There are a lot 'bad' studies and therefore 'bad' stats out there.

For people who can not tolerate the statin action, Zetia is likely going to remain the alternative. This study really did not imply any conclusion for people on Vytorin that do not have 'familial hypercholesteremia'.

Familial Hypercholesteremia can strike as early as childhood and young adulthood.

For those of us, who simply have slightly high cholesterol, it makes me think, we need to do our best with diet and exercise and hope we can keep the cholesterol under control that way.....that said, I have never been happy with my HDL..even when I was doing 'huge' exercise...I never got over 47....go figure!! However, back then my total cholesterol ran about 160...so they looked at ratio. Now, I am carrying 15 extra pounds of Christmas faire right now....(yes, thanks to all who sent me cookies)....That is my load of cholesterol and I have no one to blame but myself and my big mouth, and I do not expect the drug companies to fix that. I have to fix it...and that is a real challenge, given the body doesn't want to work well enough to get a good heart rate going for any substantial amount of time.

I am not going to be exercising to the extent I used to, ever again, and I have neurogenic myopathy already...like I need more myopathy....so now what???

Statins for me were really never an option. Zetia is perhaps a possibility. Moving my body and eating only nutrient dense food, and not that much of it, is likely my only option to keep cholesterol low.

My husband is on lovastatin and complains about being sore all the time...docs do tolerate some rhabdomyolosis on this drug as part of the acceptable risk. He too, needs to stop eating THAT much and move more.

I know, easier said than done....

I say if the drug is working for you...and you have no huge side effects, and you have no other option...Your decision is evident....