|
Low Cholesterol makes Children Aggressive
Zhang J, Muldoon MF, McKeown RE, Cuffe, SP. Association of Serum Cholesterol and History of School Suspension among School-age Children and Adolescents in the United States. American Journal of Epidemiology. 161(7):691-699, April 1, 2005.
ABSTRACT
The dietary guidelines developed for adults have been extended to children, but the role of serum cholesterol in the neurodevelopment of children is poorly understood.
In the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994), serum total cholesterol was measured in 4,852 children aged 6-16 years. Psychosocial development was evaluated by interviewing the mother regarding the child's history of school suspension or expulsion and difficulty in getting along with others.
After adjustment for family socioeconomic status, maternal marital status and education, children's nutrition, and academic performance, the odds ratios of children with various concentrations of total cholesterol showed the children to be equally comfortable in their own peer subculture and not to be different in the proportion that had seen a mental health professional.
However, non-African-American children with a serum total cholesterol concentration below the 25th percentile (<145 mg/dl) were almost threefold more likely to have been suspended or expelled from schools than their peers with total cholesterol at or above the 25th percentile (odds ratio=2.96, 95% confidence interval: 1.55, 5.64).
The authors concluded that, among non-African-American children, low total cholesterol is associated with school suspension or expulsion and that low total cholesterol may be a risk factor for aggression or a risk marker for other biologic variables that predispose to aggression.
|
COMMENT: This is not unexpected as several studies have shown that low cholesterol levels have deleterious effects on the brain.
For more detail on cholesterol and its functions, see www.cholesterol-and-health.org.uk
Last updated 2 April 2005
|
"A great book that shatters so many of the nutritional fantasies and fads of the last twenty years. Read it and prolong your life."
Clarissa Dickson Wright
"NH&WL may be the best non-technical book on diet ever written"
Joel Kauffman, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA
- a completely new kind of video and DVD.
"Must be regarded as essential reading . . . informative and thought-provoking." Dr Vyvyan Howard, MB. ChB. PhD. FRCPath. University of Liverpool.
|
