clipped from www.mailonsunday.co.uk

Challenging convention: Lowering your cholesterol was meant to be a good thing but studies now suggest they may affect intelligence and raise the risk of suicide

But cholesterol is also produced by the brain, where it is used to release vital chemicals called neurotransmitters that carry messages between brain cells. Now a study by Iowa State University suggests that statins inhibit this vital process.

When brain cells are deprived of cholesterol, they are five times less effective at releasing chemical messengers, says the research, published in the highly respected journal Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences.

it's an expensive waste of time that leaves millions of people falsely reassured and which may have damaging side-effects.

'Research shows that in people over 69 who've had no symptoms of diabetes, angina, stroke or heart attack, statins don't reduce mortality.

'It's a sheer waste of money