alerting us to the unintended downstream consequences of
using blanket cholesterol-reducing medicines (in this case,
the ubiquitous class of drugs called statins). In the
accompanying press release, he elaborated: “If you deprive
cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the
machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory
functions. In other words—how smart you are and how well
you remember things.”
Large-population studies have validated Dr. Shin’s fears.
In the lauded Framingham Heart Study, an ongoing
multigenerational analysis of heart disease risk in residents
of the Massachusetts town, two thousand male and female
participants were subjected to rigorous cognitive testing.
Researchers found that higher levels of total cholesterol,
even above the so-called healthy range, were associated
with better scores on cognitive tests involving abstract
reasoning, attention and concentration, verbal skills, and
executive abilities.^6 Subjects with lower cholesterol
displayed poorer cognitive performance. Another study of
185 elderly people without dementia found that higher
levels of both total cholesterol (combining both HDL and
LDL) as well as LDL alone (often considered the “bad”
cholesterol) were both correlated with better memory
performance.^7 There is even some data suggesting that
higher cholesterol may be protective against dementia.^8
A recent study of twenty thousand people found strong
evidence that those using cholesterol-lowering medications
called statins had increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, the