|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Is Hopelessness Really Linked to Heart Disease and Stroke? A recent study, conducted by researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School in United States, showed that healthy women who have high feeling of hopelessness are more likely to have blood clot in their neck arteries that can trigger a stroke. In the past, there had been studies being published that linked hopelessness with heart disease. For instance, in a paper published on April 13, 1996 in the Science News Vol. 149, researchers from Western Consortium for Public Health in Berkeley, California argued that hopelessness has a strong statistical link to heart disease and cancer, regardless of the presence of other major risk factors for diseases and death. These include depression, frequent alcohol drinking, hypertension (high blood pressure), smoking, and lack of social support. But the new findings, published in the April 2009’s issue of the journal Stroke, is believed to be the first to show the link between hopelessness and stroke in healthy women. The findings also suggested that women who experience feelings of hopelessness may have greater risk for future heart disease and stroke. The study involved 559 women with an average age of 50, who had no clinical signs of heart disease, such as elevated blood pressure.
In order to measure hopelessness, the participants were asked questions about the future and personal goals. The participants’ symptoms of depression, using a 20-item assessment scale, were determined. Meanwhile, the neck arteries’ thickness of these women was also measured by means of ultrasound imaging. At the end of the study, researchers found that those women who strongly felt hopeless about their future or their personal goals had more thickening in their neck arteries, or in other words, more atherosclerosis. The latter is a predictor of stroke and subsequent heart attack. The recorded measurements showed that these women’s neck arteries were 0.02 mm thicker than their more hopeful counterparts. Even after adjustment of other heart risk factors including age, race, income, heart disease risk factors, and even depression, the difference was still significant. The research team examined carefully the differences between women who where hopeless and women who were depressed. Depression is a more global disorder that affects sleep, appetite and overall mood. Their conclusion is that thickening in the neck arteries is specifically caused by hopelessness. Nevertheless, the researchers insisted that further studies are required to understand what are the physiological changes specifically occur in women who are chronically hopeless. The current study, for example, did not looked at the levels of cortisol, a known stress hormone. The new finding should alert women that feelings of hopelessness might have physical consequences. If they do have such strong feelings, it is potentially a predictor of cardiovascular disease and immediate assistance should be sought from the doctors or health professionals. Hopelessness does not affect women alone. It would bring health hazards to men as well. For example, the findings revealed in the February 17, 2008 issue of Hypertension showed that there is a link between hopelessness and hypertension. The study of 616 middle-aged men from Eastern Finland indicated that men who suffered from high degree of hopelessness over the course of 4-year study were 3 times more likely to have hypertension than those who did not suffer from hopelessness as much.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d....... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
