New research suggests that feelings of anxiety and worry not only don’t help, they may actually put you at an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes later in life.
A研究于1月24日发表在Journal of the American Heart Associationfound that middle-aged men who reported more feelings of worry or feeling overwhelmed may be at greater biological risk for developing cardiometabolic disease as they get older.
“While the participants were primarily white men, our findings indicate higher levels of anxiousness or worry among men are linked to biological processes that may give rise to heart disease and metabolic conditions, and these associations may be present much earlier in life than is commonly appreciated — potentially during childhood or young adulthood,” said Lewina Lee, PhD, lead author of the study, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, and an investigator and clinical psychologist at the National Center for创伤后应激障碍在美国退伍军人事务部，都在波士顿啊哈发布.
Worry Can Be Helpful, but Not When It Interferes With Day-To-Day Functioning
为了探索随着时间的流逝，研究人员使用了1,571名男性的数据，他们参与了规范性衰老研究，这是对男性衰老过程的纵向研究。参与者为97％的白人，平均年龄为53岁。
在1975年的研究开始时，没有一个男性患有癌症或心脏病。参与者接受了体格检查，血液检查every three to five years until they died or dropped out of the study. Each participant completed a personality inventory that measured their neuroticism on a scale of 0 to 9 and a worry assessment tool that included 20 items.
研究人员说，神经质和忧虑不是同一回事。李博士解释说，神经质是一种人格特质，其特征是将情况解释为威胁，压力或压倒性的趋势。她说：“具有高水平神经质的人很容易经历负面情绪，例如恐惧，焦虑，悲伤和愤怒 - 更加强烈，更频繁地。”
“Worry refers to our attempts at problem-solving around an issue whose future outcome is uncertain and potentially positive or negative,” said Lee. Worry isn’t always bad. It can actually be helpful when it leads to constructive solutions, she added.
“However, worry can also be unhealthy, especially when it becomes uncontrollable and interferes with our day-to-day functioning,” Lee said.
在40年的随访期内，研究人员观察到心脏代谢疾病的七种生物危险因素的水平增加，其中包括收缩压和舒张压，总胆固醇，总胆固醇，triglycerides，身体质量指数，葡萄糖和红细胞沉降率（炎症标记）。
李说，在研究开始时患有较高焦虑的男性在此期间有10％至13％的可能性达到心脏代谢疾病的高生物学风险。
“They also had consistently higher biological risk for cardiometabolic disease than less-anxious men from midlife into old age. These findings support an association between anxiety and greater risk for developing heart disease and diabetes in men,” she said.
Men Who Worry More Likely to Have Unhealthy Habits
研究人员观察到，报告更多担心的男人更有可能吸烟，喝酒，并且不定期运动。但是，即使研究人员控制了这些因素以及包括收入和教育在内的社会经济因素，忧虑和更高的生物生物学风险之间的关联仍然存在。
李指出，由于研究参与者都是男性和几乎全白人，因此该分析的结果在多大程度上可以推广到公众。她补充说，研究结果也受到所有参与者在研究开始时中年的限制。
“对于未来的研究，评估这些关联是否存在于妇女中，来自不同种族和种族的人以及在更加社会经济上变化的样本中是否存在，并考虑焦虑可能与年轻人的心脏代谢风险发展如何相比，比许多年轻人的发展是如何相关的。那些在我们的研究中。”李说。
调查结果突出了心理健康在整体健康中的重要作用
“These findings reiterate the importance of screening for mental health difficulties, such as worries and anxiety, in men as early as their thirties and forties,” said Lee.
While doctors may not screen or have conversations about reducing risk for heart disease and diabetes until older ages or the first signs of disease, these findings suggest that worries and anxiety are associated with processes that could lead to heart disease before any symptoms appear, she said. “Therefore, screening for mental health difficulties may be one way to prevent the development of cardiometabolic disease and promote heart health.”
她补充说，人们应该意识到，保持自己的心理健康可能是我们可以保护良好心脏代谢健康的方式之一。
李说：“通常，人们直到得到诊断后才注意心脏健康。”“我们的发现表明，注意心脏代谢健康的指标，例如年轻时的体重和血压，例如，在预防心脏病和糖尿病的发展方面可能具有长期的好处。”
