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Despite the fact that most people are worried about having cholesterol
levels that are too high, yet another study has found that low cholesterol
is actually associated with adverse behavioral effects such as aggression
and depression.
While the medical establishment continues to push the suppression
of cholesterol levels to abnormally low levels, it is not widely
known that there is a significant amount of evidence linking low
cholesterol to aggressive behavior and depression.
According to researchers from Yale University School of Medicine,
"The well-documented negative association between serum cholesterol
and aggressive behavior has led Kaplan (Psychosom
Med 1994 Nov-Dec;56:479-84) to propose a cholesterol-serotonin
hypothesis of aggression.
According to this hypothesis, low dietary
cholesterol intake leads to depressed central serotonergic
activity, which itself has been reported in numerous studies of
violent individuals."
- Researchers studied 25 violent psychiatric patients
- For 7 days, the patients wore signaling devices that emitted
an average of seven signals a day.
- Following each signal, patients filled out a mood questionnaire.
The authors found that "Total serum cholesterol (TSC) concentration
was positively associated with measures of affect, cognitive efficiency,
activation, and sociability, suggesting a link between low TSC and
dysphoria."
"These findings are consistent with the cholesterol-serotonin
hypothesis and with the substantive literature linking both aggression
and depression to depressed central
serotonergic activity," they conclude.
Journal of Behavioral
Medicine, December 1, 2000; 23: 519-529
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