Well, I am going to give the other point of view. I don't disagree that statins have horrible side effects for some, and I hate to see people who lead very unhealthy lifestyles think that taking a pill will make their risks for heart disease go away, but...
My DH has a family hx just like the OP. He was very thin until he was in his mid forties and then started gaining weight, despite a fairly good diet. He had been moderately active, but no real aerobic exercise (tennis, golf, walking). He started cycling at age 43-44? When he was 48, he started having the classic pain in his jaw/neck, when he and I were running in the winter. He went to the doctor, got put on a high blood pressure med. and Lipitor, as his numbers were bad. He had a stress test with the dye and nothing showed up. At this time, he was cycling 3-4,000 miles a year and he is strong. A year later, the pain was getting worse, to the point where I could ride faster than him up hills. Nothing showed up on later stress tests with the dye, so he pushed for an angiogram. Tah-dah, he had two 80% blockages. Stents went in and he was riding 5 days later. This was in 2005.
He has been on an aggressive regimen of Zetia and Crestor since 2006, along with aspirin and a tiny dose of a blood pressure medication. His numbers are great and there are no side effects. He doesn't think twice about taking these drugs. Both of his parents died horrible deaths from cholesterol related illnesses. Yes, they didn't have the healthy lifestyle we have, but they were not overweight. 3/4 of his grandparents had more than 2 heart attacks. While I think that if he had started riding and eating a bit better in his twenties or thirties, this may have been averted, I am not sure. Family history is a powerful risk factor. We have to fight the insurance company every couple of years to pay for the Zetia, as they think Lipitor, or its generic will work this well. It didn't. It's quite likely he would have been one of those guys that dropped dead shoveling snow, if he hadn't been a cyclist and noticed the increasing pain from angina as his intensity increased. This is not stuff to fool around with.