Lowered serum cholesterol, famine and aggression: a Darwinian hypothesis

Abstract

Lowering serum cholesterol, which appears to reduce mortality due to cardiovascular disease, may also increase mortality due to violent causes, including homicide, suicide and accidents. In animal research, lowering cholesterol has been linked to increased aggression. These findings suggest a Darwinian interpretation. During evolutionary history a reduction in serum cholesterol was probably invariably associated with famine. In times of famine an increased propensity for aggression may be adaptive as the struggle for survival intensifies. Evidence suggests that lowering cholesterol reduces CNS serotonergic activity and reduced serotonergic activity is known to effect an increase in impulsive, aggressive behavior. Lowered serum cholesterol may then function as an internal signal of threatened starvation, adaptively increasing aggressive behavior through effects on serotonergic activity.

Low cholesterol is not always good: low cholesterol levels are associated with decreased serotonin and increased aggression in fish

“…Kaplan et al (1997) theorizes that lowering serum cholesterol results in the reduction of central serotonergic activity, which in turn increases aggressive behavior. This hypothesis is biologically and evolutively plausible; natural selection may have altered the behavioral effects of reducing serum cholesterol (Erickson, 1997).…”

Evolutionary Health Promotion

“…When TC is below 150 mg/dl clinical coronary artery disease is rare, but aggressive their ancestors, well above the hypertension threshold indicated by Intersalt data. In this range sodium may behavior and depression are more common [120,121]. exhibit a permissive rather than a direct relationship illnesses, but chronic degenerative disease incidence has been little affected [134].…”

Expanding Evolutionary Psychology: toward a Better Understanding of Violence and Aggression

“…In periods of little food, it might have been bene®cial to have a lowered threshold for aggression (Erickson, 1997). A reduced intake of cholesterol-rich foods and a subsequent lowered cholesterol level may have been a recurrent phenomenon in our past for some individuals (but not others).…”

“…That low serum cholesterol levels can produce low levels of serotonin in the cerebrospinal¯uid, and with this an increased probability of violence (as well as impulsive suicides) as a result, is often called the``cholesterol-serotonin hypothesis'' (for violence and aggression) (see Figure 1). It is discussed in an extensive literature (Muldoon et al, 1990(Muldoon et al, , 1992(Muldoon et al, , 1993Kaplan et al, 1991Kaplan et al, , 1994Kaplan et al, , 1996Kaplan et al, , 1997Engelberg, 1992;Lindberg et al, 1992;Hillbrand and Foster, 1993;Erickson, 1997;Golomb, 1998;Golomb et al, 2000;Hillbrand et al, 2000). The hypothesis is supported by experimental studies of monkeys in which the fat and cholesterol content in the diet has been manipulated (Kaplan et al, 1991(Kaplan et al, , 1994(Kaplan et al, , 1996Muldoon et al, 1992).…”

“…A reduced intake of cholesterol-rich foods and a subsequent lowered cholesterol level may have been a recurrent phenomenon in our past for some individuals (but not others). In periods of little food, it might have been bene®cial to have a lowered threshold for aggression (Erickson, 1997). To the extent that the concentration of blood cholesterol¯uctuates with environmental changes, an increased disposition for aggression may be thought to follow.…”