Low Cholesterol Linked with Cognitive Skills

Oftentimes overlooked, low cholesterol levels have their ownrisks. For example, these levels are connected with poorer performanceon cognitive measures, according to a study reportedin Psychosomatic Medicine, January/February 2005. The studyinvolved data from 789 men and 1105 women participating in theoriginal cohort of the Framingham Heart Study. The purpose wasto examine the relationship between total cholesterol and cognitiveperformance.

The study's findings indicated that the participants in the lowestcholesterol group (<200 units) did worse on tests of similarities,word fluency, and attention/concentration, compared withthe patients in the higher cholesterol group. The researchersfound that patients in the lowest cholesterol group were 49%more prone than were the participants in the highest cholesterolgroup (240-380) to perform poorly, and 80% more likely to performvery poorly.