On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Erik Hill wrote:

> The main problems associated with low cholesterol are depression,
> suicide, and violent death.  A sudden drop in cholesterol
> sometimes indicates cancer.  115 is extremely low, and I've never
> heard of a value as low as 49.
>
> Hm, well, depression runs in my family... "violent death" seems like a
> strange medical condition...
>
> "yes Doctor, he was just walking along, when suddenly, he
> experienced ... violent death!"
>
> "It's too bad.  If only he had had his cholesterol checked earlier!  We
> could have intervened."

Well, these are correlations, no more.  But it's not so strange
that violent death should be in the mix.  Aggressive behavior can
sometimes be associated with depression (e.g., violent depressive
drunks), and aggressive behavior quite often triggers a
reciprocal response (e.g., other violent depressive drunks), so
this could be a good way to get yourself killed.

Also, one of the primary "consumers" of cholesterol is the brain,
and it's at least plausible that very low cholesterol could have
effects there, although I don't think any direct causal path has
been found.

> I've often wondered about cancer, but it didn't show up in any of the
> (many, many, many) tests, and it's been 5 years since that measurement.

And your cholesterol, though still low, is going up, not down.  A
few months before my mother's colon cancer was diagnosed, her
cholesterol, which had been high for years, even with meds,
dropped to about 160.  She was pleased that she was finally
"doing it right" (she had tried every kind of dietary strategy,
including eventually paleo, for years), but I was concerned.  As
it turned out, I had reason to be concerned.

Todd Moody
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