Loosen the noose

Wearing a tie turned out to be unhealthy

Anna Kerman, XX2 century, based on Big Think: Wearing a tie cuts circulation to your brain

Ties. Whether we like it or not, but most of the men working in offices with a "Western" dress code are forced to wear this rather strange accessory day in and day out. Someone prefers motley, someone – plain. But any ties, as a recent study has shown, disrupt the blood supply to the brain.

The results of the work are published in the journal of Neuroradiology (Lüddecke et al., Should you stop wearing neckties?—wearing a tight necktie reduces cerebral blood flow). The work was carried out on the basis of the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein (German: Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein). 30 volunteers took part in the study. Half of the participants underwent the procedure of studying the blood supply to the brain, wearing a tie, the rest were conducted the same study, but – literally – without ties. It turned out that this accessory really squeezes the vessels, reducing the volume of blood entering the brain by 7.5%. It would seem that this is not much, but in combination with cardiovascular diseases, for example, with arterial hypertension, the consequences can theoretically be fatal.

The authors of another study found that wearing a tie increases intraocular pressure. Increased intraocular pressure, in turn, is considered one of the risk factors for the development of glaucoma – a disease that leads to irreversible deterioration of vision and even complete blindness.

There is a fairly popular myth claiming that wearing a tie is somehow connected with professionalism - supposedly people who tie a piece of cloth around their neck every morning are perceived as more competent. However, a 2015 study (Slepian et al., The Cognitive Consequences of Formal Clothing) showed that this statement is true only for the wearers of ties themselves, which means that it does not affect the perception of others, but only self-perception.

Confidence in one's own professional qualities is, of course, an important thing, but whether it is worth raising it with the help of a "harmful" tie is an open question. Perhaps courses, exams and certificates will be much more effective – because they give not only an ephemeral bonus to self-esteem, but also new knowledge.

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