A drug used to treat people with coronary heart disease can also prevent illness in healthy people, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers gave daily doses of lovastatin or a placebo to more than 6,500 older men and women with a mean total cholesterol of 221 milligrams per deciliter, mormal for Americans. Those who took lovastatin cut their risk of heart attacks and angina by 37 per cent.