Re: Impatient, Hostile Men Are At Higher Risk for Hypertension

[Guest guest]

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 14:05:17 -0400, Francesca Skelton <fskelton@...>

wrote:

>

> Impatient and hostile young men run a higher risk of developing

> high blood pressure than others 15 years down the road, a study

> found.

>

Yeah that was in WSJ too...

Choose Your Neurosis:

Some Type-A Traits

Are Riskier Than Others

By RON WINSLOW Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

When business associates fail to follow straightforward directions or miss

deadlines on projects, Matt Sicinski gets angry. Really angry.

" My feet get cold, and I get a throbbing in my head, " says Mr. Sicinski,

who works for a company that runs drug studies for the pharmaceutical

industry. " I can feel every muscle in my body tense up. " Sometimes, in the

middle of a conversation, he puts the phone on mute, he says, and starts

" cursing somebody up one side and down the other. "

Mr. Sicinski's behavior reflects a classic Type A personality and one that

medical research increasingly suggests puts him on a trajectory for heart

disease later in life. Indeed, just 30 years old, he's already on a

combination of drugs to control his blood pressure, with limited success,

he says.

Now a large, long-term study offers a fresh warning for younger adults like

Mr. Sicinski for whom anger and hostility simmer continuously below the

surface, poised to boil over. Unless they can find ways to control their

outbursts, they may be at increased risk of developing high blood pressure -

- a major precursor to heart attacks, strokes and other symptoms of

cardiovascular disease.

The report, based on more than 3,300 people between 18 and 30 years old who

were then tracked for 15 years, provides more evidence that " these mind-

body effects are real and actually do increase the risk of major

illnesses, " says Redford B. , director of the behavioral medicine

research center at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

It also provides fresh insight into how various aspects of Type A behavior

may influence long-term health. Researchers found, for instance, that

competitive, achievement-oriented people -- also considered Type A's --

weren't at increased risk for high blood pressure as long as they didn't

also have hostile or impatient personality traits. And for people who are

typically hostile or impatient, the more intense those traits are, the

higher the risk of hypertension. The researchers also looked at depression

and anxiety and found neither had any consistent effects on blood pressure.

About 50 million Americans, or one in four adults, suffer from high blood

pressure, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. That

includes about 3% of people 18 to 24 years old and about 70% of those 75

and older. One important goal of public health leaders is to reduce the

numbers of young people who go on to develop hypertension. Lack of

exercise, unhealthy diets and smoking are among the well-established

contributors to the problem, but researchers have been working for three

decades to determine just what role emotions play in the complex mix of

factors that put people's hearts at risk.

Previous research into the impact of Type A behavior on blood pressure

generally has looked at only one aspect at a time. But the three main

components -- impatience, competitiveness and hostility -- often appear

together in patients. The new paper, being published Wednesday in the

Journal of the American Medical Association, found a way to explore all

three at once.

To distinguish the effects of each trait, researchers led by Lijing L. Yan,

of the department of preventive medicine at Feinberg School of Medicine at

Northwestern University, evaluated responses to four different

questionnaires that study participants filled out. For instance, the

participants answered four questions to measure their levels of impatience:

whether they generally felt pressured for time; whether they felt pressured

at the end of a work or housework day; whether they ate too quickly; and

whether they got upset when they had to wait for something. The questions

measuring competitiveness asked whether the participants had a strong need

to excel in most things; were bossy or dominating; were hard-driving and

competitive; and thought about work after working hours. Participants

scored themselves on a rating scale of one to four, with four being the

highest intensity.

In the case of both hostility and impatience, participants who scored in

the highest 25% of patients in the study had more than an 80% higher risk

of developing high blood pressure than those who scored in the lowest 25%.

In all, 15% of the 3,300 patients had developed high blood pressure 15

years after the study began. (The study defined high blood pressure as a

systolic or high number 140 or greater and a diastolic, or low number of 90

or greater.)

How such emotions might affect blood pressure isn't clearly understood, but

researchers think one explanation is that in hostile people, for instance,

the body's so-called fight or flight mechanism is constantly turned on.

That may result in a chronically overworked heart and associated biological

changes that over time increase blood pressure levels. Dr. Yan, the study

leader, cautioned that several limitations in the study make it only

suggestive and not proof of a link to hypertension.

There are few studies showing that taming Type A behavior leads to lower

blood pressure, but researchers think meditation, yoga and other exercise

might help curb hostility and impatience.

An important initial strategy, suggests Dr. Yan, is simply to be aware of

tendencies toward impatience and hostility and to try to relax or get

exercise when the feelings begin to emerge. Duke's Dr. , a founder

and stockholder in a company that markets stress management programs,

suggests the first step is to ask yourself just how important the situation

is. If it's insignificant, such as being stuck in a traffic jam, he

advises, " Let it go. "

Many people who get into the habit of such an approach, he says, find most

of what makes them hostile is trivial and become better at controlling

their response.

Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@...

[Guest guest]

>

> Impatient and hostile young men run a higher risk of developing

> high blood pressure than others 15 years down the road, a study

> found.

*****OH....SHUT UP Francesca!! I'm SICK to DEATH! of your posts!!!

Who the HELL are you calling impatient and hostile anyway???

Just kidding! :-)))

(I couldn't resist.)

BTW: Thank you: you are doing a wonderful job managing this group.

Keep it up!

~ andy

[Guest guest]

Andy: I hope I speak for everyone when I say that I thoroughly enjoy your

witty humor. Sometimes we take ourselves sooo seriously and need to lighten

up a bit. Keep it up to you too!!

on 10/22/2003 6:12 PM, Andy at endofthedream@... wrote:

> ust kidding! :-)))

> (I couldn't resist.)

>

>

> BTW: Thank you: you are doing a wonderful job managing this group.

> Keep it up!

>

> ~ andy