tags: medicine, heart attack, angina, health
Do you think life is unfair? According to a new study, people who think they have been treated unfairly are more likely to suffer a heart attack or chest pain.
One of the largest and longest studies of its kind analyzed medical data from 6,081 British civil servants. In the early 1990s, they were asked how strongly they agreed with this statement: "I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly." According to the results, published yesterday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, people who reported that they had experienced the worst injustice were 55% more likely to experience a coronary event than people who thought life was fair.
"Frequent experiences of unfair treatment can produce psychological distress that, in the long term, may influence health," said lead author Roberto De Vogli, an epidemiologist at University College London.
For this study, the subjects were questioned by the researchers before they showed any signs of cardiovascular disease, unlike in other studies. This was to prevent the results from being skewed by those who thought life was unfair because they were already sick. The volunteers were tracked for an average of 10.9 years. During that time, 387 either died of a heart attack, were treated for a nonfatal heart attack or diagnosed with angina.
Additionally, the researchers found that the rate of cardiac events among civil servants who reported low levels of unfair treatment was 28% higher than for those who had no complaints. People who reported moderate unfairness saw their heart attack risk rise by 36%.
Cited story.
so just why did the right reverend Falwell feel unfairly treated? all the major politicians gave him attention.
I think that treated most American citizens unfairly.
This just doesn't seem fair :o)
The sad thing is, this sort of thing isn't going to make a dent in the cement-skull-filling of the sort of person who thinks treating people unfairly is amusing and something to brag about, and that "life's not fair" is a reasonable rebuttal of accusations of deliberate or needless injustice. It's really not fair... :/
I know that life had treated you unfairly and I certainly hope that yoga or meditation or something is helping you stay healthy. You have so much to contribute to those of us who enjoy science as non-scientists.
Of course, it might be that this only affects British Civil Servants. They're an odd breed anyway.
Bob
The physiology behind this is the placebo effect and nitric oxide. The placebo effect is invoked by high NO, any adverse event (such as abuse) causes low NO and is a nocebo. Meditation does raise NO levels and so invokes the placebo effect and counters the low NO effects of stress and abuse.
well, birding has always had a calming effect on me ..
If it has a calming effect, then it is most likely invoking the production of NO. NO generated as a consequence of thinking about things you enjoy thinking about may be one of the things that fosters good habits and bad.