[Health&Healing] Attitude Does Affect Health- Be Happy!!

[Guest guest]

Yep, that is why we call it body & mind medicine...

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Attitude does affect one's health - Be Happy!!

 

Too negative for your own good?

Penny Wark

 

(Timesonline Health Bulletin)

 

Take two patients who have each had a similarly damaging heart

attack. One is cheerful, outgoing and optimistic, and seizes every

possibility of rehabilitation. The other is withdrawn, gloomy,

grumbles a lot and resists any talk of getting better. One of them

recovers. Which one?

 

 

It is not difficult to guess that Mr Happy is likely to do better

than Mr Grumpy — doctors have long believed that personality is

associated with medical risk. Johan Denollet was one of them when he

found himself working as a psychologist in coronary rehabilitation

and noticed that patients who had been through the same medical

experiences had different ways of responding. " In dealing with these

patients I had the impression that two distinct personality traits

were of importance, " he recalls. " But to move on you have to have

empirical data. "

 

NI_MPU('middle');Denollet, professor of medical psychology at Tilburg

University in the Netherlands, has now conducted research with

cardiovascular patients — they include coronary patients, and those

with hypertension, peripheral arterial disease, heart failure, and

cardiac arrhythmias — which shows that his instincts were right.

Through this he has been able to identify the Type D personality —

the patient who is inclined to build up a form of chronic stress that

may be harmful to their health. This suggests that psychological

state is as key to a healthy heart as diet, exercise and external

stress. The two major characteristics Professor Denollet had spotted

are: " negative affectivity " , a tendency to experience negative

emotions — worry, sadness and pessimism; and " social inhibition, a

tendency to inhibit the expression of emotions, to be reticent and to

lack self-esteem. But he stresses that classification is not a simple

matter of happy versus grumpy.

 

" The combined presence of both negative affectivity and social

inhibition is important, " he explains. " You can have someone who

tends to be very negative — but if they talk about how they feel they

can do something about it and are not at increased risk. "

To pinpoint those patients who match Type D's characteristics

Professor Denollet has devised a 14-question personality test known

as the DS14, which has proved to be an effective predicitor of

cardiovascular health.

 

High scores are strongly associated with both hypertension and

coronary heart disease, and among coronary patients the highest

scores equate with people who are less responsive to treatment, have

a poorer quality of life and are likely to die prematurely. " If Type

D is present in a cardiac patient he has a four-fold increased risk

of getting a heart attack or dying too soon, " Denollet says. Using an

earlier version of the test, he worked with 300 people undergoing

cardiac rehabilitation in Antwerp. Within ten years 27 per cent of

the Type D patients had died, mostly of heart disease or stroke,

compared with 7 per cent of the others. The identification of the

Type D personality follows well-known work by psychologists in the

1960s and 1970s which equated specific characteristics with risk of

poor health. Ambitious, goal-orientated workaholics were called Type

As and said to be prone to stress and anger and at risk of high blood

pressure and heart disease. Type Bs, non-competitive, easygoing and

contemplative, were thought to carry no significant health

risks. Type Cs, reliable copers who avoid conflict by suppressing

their feelings, were said to be prone to cancer. The link between

Type A and heart disease was undermined by mixed research in the

1980s, though later studies confirmed that negative emotions can be

harmful to health. The value of Denollet's work is that it enables

doctors — both GPs and cardiologists — and individuals to measure a

person's susceptibility to experience some harmful emotions. This is

especially useful for people who are embarrassed by the notion of

talking openly to others.

 

" Paradoxically, Type D patients are well aware of what's going on in

their lives — if they are feeling more tired or breathless, " Denollet

says. " But they're not likely to contact their cardiologist to do

something about it. If the cardiologist knows they're Type D he can

arrange more appointments for these patients, and he can probe more

to find out what's really going on. "

 

Does this mean that you should be concerned if you are a Type D? Not

necessarily, he says. " There are quite healthy Type Ds who can talk

about things that are going on in their lives. It's like smoking is a

serious risk for heart disease — but this doesn't mean that you're

bound to have a heart attack if you smoke. If you are Type D and

don't have any significant health problems you don't have to worry

too much provided you have good social resources, or are happily

married, and have plenty of friends. If you are Type D and do have a

chronic condition then you need to make changes in your life that

will make you happier. " Denollet is now seeking an explanation for

his link between specific personality traits and a greater risk of

cardiovascular difficulties, and he is testing the concept in non-

Western cultures.

 

As debate about the role of personality traits in the development and

progression of coronary artery disease continues, the Texas Heart

Institute has said that " evidence suggests that Type D has displaced

Type A as the dominant personality risk factor " .

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8123-1826792,00.html