Experts have suggested that while trying to keep down the risk of heart attacks, pills of the popular drug called statins that lowers cholesterol should not be had by those who already are at relatively low risk of heart disease.

Reports state that statins are taken by about 300,000 people in New Zealand as they are a cost-effective treatment and doctors have taken it that way. There has been a dramatic rise in the number of people using the drug since
2002 and last year more than 1.5 million prescriptions were issued.

There have been studies about how effective statins will be for those who do not have a high risk of heart attack.

National Heart Foundation medical director Norman Sharpe said, "The lower we go, the less the benefit, and then we get to a level where the risk of treatment might out-weigh the benefits."

There has been a review that states, negligible effect might be there of statins on people who do not have a history of cardiovascular disease and over prescription is the word for statins in many countries.