5 min read IN HIS MID-30S , cardiologist and Men’s Health advisor Christopher Kelly, MD , noticed that quite a few of his colleagues in cardiology were taking statins—even though they didn’t have sky-high cholesterol . Dr. Kelly himself was pretty healthy. His cholesterol wasn’t A+ low—it was only somewhat elevated. However, he had a family history of heart trouble and he knew the data on the benefits of these cholesterol-lowering meds when it came to reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke. So he went on them, too. That was 10 years ago, and he’s still taking statins. It was a bit of an unusual decision for this doctor who practices evidence-based medicine: “There's really not a lot of research in young, healthy people with moderately elevated cholesterol taking a statin and what the long-term effects of that are,” he says. Still, there is some. The large Hope 3 clinical trial showed a benefit for people who had any cardiovascular risk, even if that risk wasn’t from high cholesterol. Overall, Dr.…