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Negative Personalities Are Dangerous to the Heart

In America, where more men and women succumb to death from heart causes than next 7 causes of death combined, identifying aspect of one’s personality that is statistically related to death from cardiac causes is important knowledge. That’s why medical researchers at Duke University were excited to publish their study in the medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine, because proving the danger of developing life-threatening heart disease from a mixture of negative personality characteristics has never been investigated before.

To prove that heart disease can be generated from a mixture of negative personality traits, doctors tracked 2,105 soldiers in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. They began in 1985 to study these veterans — who averaged 47 years of age — and were found to be free of any signs of heart disease. The veterans got heart checkups and underwent personality diagnostics in 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002, a 15-year span. 

Previous Studies

Previous studies have individually linked anger, depression, hostility and anxiety to increasing the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease. In this study, the subjects were assessed for each of those behavioral characteristics separately and in combination.

The results showed that each of the four personality attributes did individually predict developing heart disease. However, the combination of those four behavioral characteristics was the most potent predictor of coronary heart disease. Of course, the study factored in other aspects such as: age, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, body mass index (BMI) and smoking. In fact, the results were the same for veterans who had, or hadn't, worked with herbicides such as Agent Orange in Vietnam.

While the findings may be regarded with some statistical boundaries, because the subjects were all men (no women), doctors believe the results will bear out in future studies because of previous studies linking each individual personality characteristic with the development of coronary heart disease.

Cardiac Expert on Acute Stress and Heart Attacks

Redford Williams, M.D., director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University Medical Center says, "People with high work stress, jobs — but little control over those jobs — could be at high risk for heart disease from stress." Dr. Williams, a psychiatrist at Duke University Medical Center has published more than 150 scientific articles on stress and heart disease and is also co-author of the book Anger Kills.

In 2006, Ken Lay, former chief executive officer of Enron, who was convicted of corruption charges after a highly publicized trail, subsequently died of a fatal heart attack before he reported to prison. In commenting on this, Dr. Williams pointed out, "Mr. Lay is an unfortunate example of the fact that stress can play a role in precipitating an acute heart attack, because stress can play nearly as important a role in having a heart attack as high cholesterol or high blood pressure."

He went on to recommend that anyone who constantly feels worried, anxious, angry, or who regularly experiences fatigue, a racing heart or difficulty breathing should consult with a physician.

In conclusion, Dr. Williams advises that regular meditation or deep relaxation can also help reduce dangerous levels of the harmful hormones of stress and protect the mind and body from the deadly effects of extreme stress.

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Sources: Role of Emotions and Stress in the Genesis of Sudden Death Journal of the American College of Cardiology 1985 Jun;5(6 Suppl):95B-98B Mental Stress and Sudden Cardiac Death: asymmetric midbrain activity as a linking mechanism Brain 2005 Jan;128(Pt 1):75-85. Epub 2004 Oct 20 Acute Emotional Stress and Cardiac Arrhythmias Journal of the American Medical Association 2007 Jul 18;298(3):324-9

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