ARE YOUR FEELINGS HURT? CONSIDER YOUR ARTERIES.
Posted by: Editor in Blood, Brain, FEELINGS Add commentsHopelessness may increase risk of stroke
MINNEAPOLIS (UPI) – Healthy middle-aged women with feelings of hopelessness may develop neck artery thickening, a risk factor for stroke, U.S. researchers said.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School looked at 559 women — average age 50, 62 percent white, 38 percent African-American — who were generally healthy and did not show signs of clinical cardiovascular disease.
Susan A. Everson-Rose and colleagues measured hopelessness with a questionnaire assessing expectancies regarding future and personal goals. Depressive symptoms were measured with a 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Thickness of neck arteries was assessed using ultrasound.
The study, published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, found hopelessness — negative thinking and feelings of uselessness — affects arteries independent of clinical depression and before women develop clinically relevant cardiovascular disease.
The researchers found a consistent, progressive and linear association between increasing neck artery thickness and rising levels of hopelessness.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 8th Sept 2009
