Cholesterol Myth?

OK, so I've now purchasd a couple of books on the topic of cholesterol, and it's not clear to me that lowering cholesterol is even a good thing to do.

First, there is definitely questioning along the lines of whether the correlation between high blood cholesterol and heart disease even exists. It doesn't appear to be the case in elderly women, or even women at all. Moreover, studies that show the correlation are flawed. The book The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease points this out, among other arguments.

Second, if there is a correlation, the bigger question is whether the relationship is causal. The Homocysteine Theory as outlined by Kilmer McCully suggests that it is homocysteine and not cholesterol that is to blame for arterial sclerosis and that lowering cholesterol by itself does not reduce heart disease. Recent data concurs, such as the study on Merck's Zocor that shows that higher dosages of the compound did not reduce coronary heart disease despite the cholesterol-lowering effects. It is now theorized that some other mechanism that statins like Lipitor induce is what's responsible for reductions in heart disease.

Moreover, because of the known effects of statins, there is certainly an argument that suggests cholesterol lowering should not be a goal.

Still, I will continue eating soy, Omega-3 oil supplements, soluble fiber, and plant sterol supplements. These are lacking in our diets anyway, but I recognize that diet alone is a tough, if not impossible, way to lower cholesterol.