You can't just take a pill to avoid health problems. At least not yet. Some day biotechnological advances will free us from the need to select our diets carefully. But for now drugs can not do the job alone.

Boston, MA -- A prospective study of 42,847 middle-aged and older U.S. men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study has found that a healthy lifestyle is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), even among men taking antihypertensive or lipid-lowering medications. The research, which is the first to look at the role of a healthy lifestyle and CHD in men in this age group, is published in the July 3, 2006, online edition of Circulation.

The research team, led by Eric Rimm, associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Stephanie Chiuve, research fellow in nutrition at HSPH, did a 16-year follow-up of men aged 40-75 in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a men's health study that began in 1986. The researchers defined healthy lifestyle factors as not smoking, daily exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, a healthy body weight and a healthy diet (based upon the Alternate Healthy Eating Index developed by HSPH, which targets food and nutrients associated with lower risk of chronic disease). The study, which documented 2,183 coronary events, found that men with all five healthy lifestyle factors had a lower risk of CHD compared to men with none of those factors. It also found that 62 percent of coronary events may have been prevented if all men in the study population adhered to all five healthy lifestyle factors; for those men taking medications, 57 percent could have been prevented. Men who adopted two or more low-risk factors during the study period (1986-2002) had a 27 percent lower risk of CHD. Overall, for each healthy lifestyle factor, the authors found an inverse association with CHD risk.

Well, statins used to lower cholesterol will not provide an optimal outcome. Diet still matters, not surprisingly.

If you want to follow their dietary recommendations then check out the food pyramid for the Alternate Healthy Eating Index. My guess is you can do even better than that food pyramid by enhancing it with the "Ape Diet" recommendations of David Jenkins at U Toronto.