If you're antagonistic, you might have thicker arteries
Submitted by Jeff on August 25, 2010 - 11:10am
A good temper and easygoing nature might pay off with better heart health. A new study published online by Hypertension finds that thickening of the carotid artery is more pronounced in people who scored higher for antagonism on a personality assessment. The study looked at 5000 people in four villages on the island of Sardinia. Carotid artery intima media thickness is one measure of the progression of atherosclerosis. The carotid artery carries blood to the head.According to heartwire:
Those who scored in the bottom 10% of agreeableness and were therefore the most antagonistic had about a 40% increased risk for elevated IMT; the effect on artery walls was thus similar to having metabolic syndrome, say the researchers.
Men generally tend to have thicker artery walls than women, but those women who scored in the highest category for antagonism had carotid walls just as thick as those of men. The article abstract notes that:
Antagonistic individuals, especially those who are manipulative and aggressive, have greater increases in arterial thickening, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
