Why McDonalds is good for me

Finally! A reason for me to eat fatty junk food!

In a new study, to be published soon, scientists at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia, investigated whether there were differences in the serum cholesterol levels in hospitalized bipolar disorder male patients with history of suicide attempts and without suicide attempts.

They found there was a significant difference. Men who attempted suicide had significantly lower levels of total cholesterol (median 3.9 mmol/L vs 4.8 mmol/L); they also had lower LDL (median 2.3 mmol/L vs 3.0 mmol/L).

Ok, so the website linked to is a bit crazy (inverse health food evangelist?), but still I’ll take any excuse going to eat trash. The paper – Differences in cholesterol and metabolic syndrome between bipolar disorder men with and without suicide attempts – looks a bit more sensible however.

EDIT: I’ve been thinking since – perhaps the raised cholesterol is due to an external factor. What about happy bipolar types overeating? That’s a depressed person thing, someone eating normally is unlikely to be trying to top themselves. But what about other metabolic disorders. And then something occured to me that I read a while back:

Bipolar Disorder Meds Increase Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes

Some of the most widely used BPD medications do seem to effect how the body’s metabolism works, so could this be the cause? It’s likely that a well medicated bipolar person (who unfortunately has high cholesterol as a side effect) is less likely to commit suicide than an unmedicated “I can cope with a good diet and vitamin tablets” type.

So should I be avoiding junk food instead, to try and keep my cholestrol in check?! Nah, my medication (Lamictal) isn’t one implicated in causing diabetes, so I’d best keep my levels artificially high, just to be doubly sure