SINS, high cholesterol can be caused by diet, by genes (and, as Batty said, overproduction of it by your liver). Garlic will likely help, a statin medication, if prescribed, will help. Excercise probably will be good for more than just your cholesterol (and I really need to develop a plan for myself) and diet may, I repeat, MAY help. It didn't help me at all. There was also a slight clue: my uncle on my mom's side died suddenly of a massive heart attack when he was 46, before the age of cholesterol screening, and my mom's cholesterol was high, despite being on an extremely low fat (and low salt, diabetic) diet. Diet didn't help me one bit and has no effect on my cholesterol level now. Anyway, do the diet thing. I'm telling you this stuff so if you go back to the doctor after a few months of depravation and misery and find your cholesterol hasn't changed one bit (or like mine did, got higher), you won't have a cow. At least not unless you trim all the fat off and grill it...with garlic.

Now, I seem to remember there was some on-topic reason I was posting to this thread...OH YEAH! I know where you live now. Will the world end if I show up? Got sleeping space left? If not, I have a blow up mattress. The car's a bit iffy these days, though.