The JUPITER study showed that taking a statin reduced the risk of a cardiac event by less than 1% (risk dropped from 1.8% to 0.9%) and it also raised the risk of diabetes by .6%, so personally I'd go the exercise/fruit and veggie route first. The study was also stopped less than halfway through, which raised a lot of eyebrows given the elevated diabetes risk and the need for a look at the long term effects of statins on people without clear cardiac disease.
Statins are far from side-effect free so I myself wouldn't take them unless I'd exhausted other options.
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Janet P of NC 6:49AM February 06, 2009