Type A Personalities Have Higher Stroke Risk If Stressed

Date: Aug-30-2012People with a Type A personality who live with chronic stress are more likely to develop a stroke, researchers at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, revealed in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Chronic stress means that the stress is persistent for over six months.

The team gathered data on 150 adults who had been admitted to one stroke unit, they were aged 54 years (average). They compared them to a randomly-selected group of 300 people of the same age and lived in the same neighborhood.

The researchers assessed chronic stress by combining the scores from four validated scales. They looked at major life events and symptoms which are associated with stress, including anxiety and depression, as well as behavior patterns seen in people with Type A personalities.

A Type A personality is ambitious, extremely organized, often sensitive, cares for others, truthful, and highly status conscious. Behavior patterns linked to Type A that the team were looking out for included a quick temper, impatience, aggression and hostility.

The team assessed the participants for stroke risk factors, such as hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, a history of arrhythmias, elevated cholesterol, and daytime drowsiness. Data was also gathered on some of their lifestyle habits, such as smoking status, their consumption of caffeine, energy drinks, and alcohol. They were asked whether they were in employment and had a partner.

Several factors were found to be independently linked to a higher risk of stroke.

People who had experienced a major life during the previous 12 months were four times as likely to suffer a stroke than those who had not, the authors found.

Examples of a major life event include getting married, the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, losing your job, changing house, divorce, or going to college. For many people, when a country goes into recession or an economic downturn, stress increases. A recent study found that a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241966.php">stress rises 40% during a recession.

Those with a high score had twice the risk of having a stroke.

Stroke risk was increased by the following factors:
having a history of regular smoking - twice the risk of stroke
Consuming at least two energy drinks a day - twice the risk of stroke
Having some kind of rhythm disturbance - three times the risk of stroke
Having a high daytime sleepiness score - triple the risk of stroke
Males were found to be nine times as likely to have a stroke than women

Even when assessing all the factors together, the researchers found that stroke risk was linked to a stressful life and Type A behaviors, regardless of other risk factors and types of lifestyles.

A great deal of research has gone into stress and its effect on our mental and physical health. Researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum found that  psychological stress may increase mental and physical illness by altering the control of genes.
What is stress?
Informally, people use the word stress when they feel that it all has become too much, when they are overloaded and wonder whether it is possible to cope with the pressures that are placed on them. Anything that poses a threat or a challenge to our well-being is a kind of stress. Some types of stress stimulate us into action, make us do things, with no stress at all our lives would probably seem pointless and boring. However, when stress undermines a person's mental and physical health, it is a problem.

Psychologists describe stress as a sensation of pressure and strain, a feeling of being overwhelmed and anxious, irritable, insecure, nervous. Stress can make people feel exhausted, it can raise our blood pressure, cause depression and panic attacks, reduce our libido, cause migraines and gastrointestinal problems, as well as insomnia. Stress can eventually cause heart problems.

Stress is how the body or mind responds to a change, usually a challenging one. Mental stress may be evoked by a mental task, such as public speaking or doing mental arithmetic in a hurry. If something triggers a lot of stress, we say it is stressful. Driving to work every day in heavy traffic can be stressful. Not having enough time to do things, such as to make the meals, clean the house, look after the kids because of long working hours can be very stressful.

According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, Stress is:

In psychiatry and psychology - the abnormal mental and emotional state in response to a physical or physiologic stressor.

In medicine - reactions of the body to forces of a deleterious nature, infections, and various abnormal states that tend to disturb its normal physiologic equilibrium (homeostasis).

Written by Christian Nordqvist

Copyright: Medical News Today

Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.