Low cholesterol linked to depression
FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2000Doctors have long warned about the health hazards of high cholesterol, but recent evidence indicates that very low cholesterol can be dangerous, particularly for women.
Researchers at Duke University, North Carolina, studied 121 healthy young women, finding that those with low cholesterol levels - below 160 mg per day - were more likely to score high on measures of depression and anxiety than women with normal or high cholesterol levels. Normal cholesterol levels are considered to fall within the range of 180mg to 200mg daily.
While women in the study were not being treated for depression or anxiety, their scores on standard personality profiles put them at risk of developing depression and anxiety, according to Duke psychologist Edward Suarez.
Results of the study, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, are published in the May issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, www.psychosomatic.org
"There is now a compelling body of evidence in both men and women that low cholesterol is a potential predictor for depression and anxiety in certain individuals," Dr Suarez said.
"Our data suggests that women with naturally low cholesterol could benefit from raising their cholesterol through healthy dietary measures, like consuming more fish or fish oil.
"Someday, screening for depression may encompass a cholesterol test, especially at significant points in a woman's lifetime when her cholesterol levels are known to drop," he said.
After childbirth, a woman's cholesterol level dropped precipitously, giving rise to the theory that some cases of postpartum depression resulted from low cholesterol.
According to Dr Suarez, identifying low cholesterol as a risk factor for depression added weight to the theory that depression and other mental disorders were largely determined by a person's biological makeup and not by his or her lifetime experiences alone.
Suarez said there was also evidence to suggest that having low cholesterol altered the way brain cells functioned. He said brain cells with low levels of cholesterol had fewer serotonin receptors, preventing them from properly using this mood-stabilising brain chemical.
"If we assume that amounts of cholesterol circulating in the blood reflect levels in the brain, then brain cells are not functioning properly in individuals with low cholesterol," he said.
The American study supports recent Dutch research which found that over a four-year period, 130 men with total cholesterol levels less than 175mg daily were four to seven times more likely to suffer severe depression than men with cholesterol levels of 230mg to 270mg.
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