http://ww2.mcgill.ca/chemistry/world_of_chem/cholesterol.html

...When a landmark study carried out by the National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute in the U.S. demonstrated that reducing high blood
cholesterol in middle aged men resulted in fewer heart attacks, critics
pointed out that the deaths from all causes were the same in both the
experimental and control groups. In other words, although there were
fewer deaths from CHD, and there were fewer non fatal heart attacks in
the treatment group, there was an unexplained increase in death from
other causes. This observation has been noted in other studies as well,
namely that while heart attack risk was reduced through reduction of
blood cholesterol, longevity was unaffected...

An odd article, filled with lots of information, but in spite of the
above, they go on to advocate low fat diets, drugs and the like. Why
bother if there is no increase in lifespan?