Some researchers speculate that extremely low cholesterol is tied to depression.
The word cholesterol conjures up thoughts of clogged arteries and heart attacks, but researchers say there's a happy flip side to the oft-demonized fat. The right levels of it may protect against depression. Edward Suarez, a researcher in the psychiatry department at Duke University Medical Center, says he found higher rates of depression and anxiety among young women with very low cholesterol, compared with women with normal levels or higher. His work meshes with previous studies that found the same trend among elderly men and moms who had just given birth. And another study, in 1996, found higher suicide rates among men with very low cholesterol levels.