Stress: A Heart Disease Risk Factor on a Par With Smoking and Obesity (page 2 of 2)

Hostility and the Heart

Everyone experiences stress now and then, but some people take stress a step further.

Surely you're familiar with the classic Type A personality -- the person who interrupts while you're speaking, tailgates the car in front, gives new meaning to the word "impatient," and is quick to snap when things go wrong. For years researchers knew that such people were more likely to have heart disease and heart attacks. Now they're learning why. A principal culprit, it seems, is hostility. At the lab of Catherine M. Stoney, Ph.D., researchers are focusing on a particular kind of hostility called aggressive responding. Aggressive responders tend to have a tough, somewhat cold-hearted view of the world and people around them. They agree with statements like, "I don't blame anyone for grabbing everything he can in this world," and, "I don't try to cover up my poor opinion or pity of another person."

The same researchers also found that people with a trait called cynical hostility were more likely to show areas of dead tissue, or evidence of small heart attacks, in their heart. These people would agree with statements like, "Most people would lie to get ahead," and, "People seek friends who are likely to be useful to them."

Hostility may be so physically damaging that, according to a study published in the November 2002 issue of Health Psychology, it may trump overweight, cigarette smoking, and even high cholesterol as a predictor of heart disease. In the study, which looked at 774 men with an average age of 60, the researchers found that the more hostile the men were, the more likely they were to suffer from heart disease -- regardless of any other risk factors, including high cholesterol.

From Cut Your Cholesterol

 

• Cholesterol
• • Heart Disease
• • Stress

• Stress: America's #1 Health Problem
• How different types of stress can affect your well-being.
• 
• How Hostile Are You?
• Find out if you are at a higher risk for heart disease.
• 
• Change the Way You React to Stress
• How you respond to stress can make all the difference.
• 
• De-Stress Your Commute
• 21 tips for a happier journey.
• 
• Prevent Colds and the Flu
• 23 ways to stay healthy year-round.
• 
• Learn the Art of Self-Massage
• Reduce tension in seconds -- anywhere
• 

“ Clothes with zippers let you cool off during a workout as well as adjust to changes in the weather. ”

• See All Tips

• Be Inspired
• 10 Celebrities Who Give Back
• 7 Amazing Stories, $700,000 to Charity
• Virginia Cervasio: Making It Matter
• PLUS:
• Quiz: What's Your Celebrity Cause IQ?

Doctors are used to getting calls at any hour. One night a man phoned, waking me up. "I'm sorry to bother you so late," he said, "but I think my wife has appendicitis."Still half asleep, I reminded him that I had taken his wife's inflamed appendix out a couple of years before. "Whoever heard of a second appendix?" I asked. "You may not have heard of a second appendix," he replied, "but surely you've heard of a second wife."   

-- James Karuri Muchiri