Don't worry, be healthy
Scientists have found a link between anxiety and deadly diseases
American medical scientists have concluded that men who are more worried develop heart disease and diabetes earlier. The results of the study are published in the journal Journal of the American Heart Association (Lee et al., Neuroticism, Worry, and Cardiometabolic Risk Trajectories: Findings From a 40‐Year Study of Men).
To track the relationship between anxiety and risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, stroke and type II diabetes, the authors analyzed data on participants in the longitudinal study of aging processes in men, the Normative Aging Study, launched in 1961 by the outpatient clinic of veterans USA in Boston.
The analysis included 1,561 men, whose average age in 1975 was 53 years. At the time of entering into the database of the study, they did not have cardiovascular diseases or cancer and all were tested for the level of neuroticism.
Neuroticism is a personality trait characterized by a tendency to interpret situations as threatening, stressful or overwhelming. People with a high level of neuroticism tend to experience negative emotions more often, such as fear, anxiety, sadness and anger.
"Our results show that a higher level of anxiety among men is associated with biological processes that can lead to heart disease and metabolic disorders. And this connection could have arisen much earlier than is commonly believed — potentially even in childhood or adolescence," the press release says. The words of the first author of the article, Lewina Lee, associate professor of Psychiatry at the Medical School of the American Heart Association Boston University and a clinical psychologist at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"The concern is related to our attempts to solve the problem, the outcome of which is unclear — it can be positive or negative. Anxiety can be adaptive, for example, when it leads us to constructive solutions, or unhealthy, especially when it becomes uncontrollable and interferes with our daily activities," explains the scientist.
The study participants underwent a medical examination and blood tests every three to five years. Among the parameters of health assessment, the authors selected seven cardiometabolic risk factors: upper and lower blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, body mass index, fasting blood sugar, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and inflammation marker.
Each participant was awarded points — one for each of the seven risk factors. If a person had six or more high-risk markers, scientists believed that they had already developed cardiometabolic disease.
The researchers found that in the period of life from 33 to 65 years, the average number of cardiometabolic high-risk factors increases by about one per decade and reaches an average of 3.8 by the age of 65. However, in all age groups, participants with a higher level of neuroticism had a higher score. Adjusted for demographic characteristics, such as income and education, and a family history of heart disease, scientists estimate that their risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases is 13 percent higher than that of people with low anxiety.
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