I had borderline cholesterol for years, and my LDL was not great either, but I resisted going on statins for a long, long time because my HDL was great and my Framingham risk score was low. It was not until I had some in-depth lipoprotein testing done, including particle testing, that I agreed that a statin made sense, especially in conjunction with my developing pre-diabetes. The specialist who tested said that with my lipoprotein pattern, it would be very unlikely that more exercise and nutritional modification would get the LDL to appropriate levels (and while not a sports fanatic, I wasn't exactly a couch potato either). The additional testing can be very revealing.