APA: Dealing Well With Stress Linked to Higher HDLs

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20 -- The ability to cope with stress may be linked to HDLs, researchers said here.

Among older men, negative coping strategies, such as hostility and social isolation, were significantly associated with lower HDL levels compared with men who had more positive ways of dealing with stress (P

A fasting blood sample was taken at the same time as the subjective testing.

Among the modest, but significant, correlations, the findings for men who scored higher for hostility were:

• Greater stress scores (P

These findings matched clinical observations, Dr. Yancura and colleagues said.

Furthermore, "the coping variables also showed the expected relationships with HDL," the researchers noted. Hostility was both directly linked to HDL and indirectly through coping strategies.

The investigators noted that their study might be of limited generalizability because the relationship between hostility, stress and other factors with lipids likely vary by age, gender, or ethnicity. Also, the study did not look at longitudinal relationships between the factors.