As a cardiovascular physician, I’ve probably been asked more than once by patients, “Doctor, my cholesterol has dropped significantly after a period of statin therapy, do I need to continue taking the medication? Can I stop taking the medication?” How should a doctor answer this question? First, the doctor should tell the patient that he or she cannot stop taking the medication. For most patients, statins should be taken for a long time and should not be discontinued as long as there are no adverse effects. The final version of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines for primary prevention of statins published last year already suggest the use of low to moderate doses of statins for people aged 40 to 75 years without a history of cardiovascular disease but with one or more cardiovascular disease risk factors (dyslipidemia, diabetes, hypertension or smoking) and a 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease events (myocardial infarction or stroke) of ≥10% (level B recommendation). This year the European Atherosclerosis Society also published a consensus that the earlier treatment is started for elevated LDL-C, the greater the reduction in LDL-C and the longer the adherence to treatment, the greater the cardiovascular benefit and the better the patient’s prognosis. Therefore, physicians should tell patients that cholesterol-lowering therapy is not a treatment process for a short period of time, but requires long-term adherence. Second, too low is not terrible As we reported previously in April, the newly published results of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) SPIRE2 and FOURIER trials show that lowering cholesterol is hard and that very low levels of LDL-C are safe and effective, even down to 1 mmol/L, which is still safe. Although the current target value of LDL-C will still need to be further adjusted downward by expert arguments and amendments to relevant guidelines, patients who encounter LDL-C already down to very low levels in clinical practice need not worry and do not need to reduce or even stop using statin. There is no need to deliberately reinforce the adverse effects of statin. The main adverse effects of statin are currently focused on muscle symptoms, but more and more studies show that such symptoms vary from person to person and do not occur in all patients. Statins are still the most well-documented cholesterol-lowering drug available, so physicians should be fully aware of the potential anti-placebo effect and understand the patient’s previous knowledge or perceptions of statin therapy, or even tell the patient that “statin myalgia” may be a psychological effect. When prescribing, doctors should remind patients of the possible statin-related side effects, but should not overemphasize them, so as not to cause excessive expectations of adverse effects and seriously affect patients’ compliance, leading to intolerance and discontinuation, and depriving patients of the cardiovascular benefits of long-term statin therapy. It should also be added that a patient’s high cholesterol level should be determined by a professional physician based on the patient’s specific situation, not just the normal value on the laboratory test. Some people do not have upward arrows on their lipid panel, and all indicators are within the normal range, but still need to receive statin therapy in order to bring LDL-C down to a lower level.