8 August, 2015

How your personality can damage your health

Your temperament determines more than just your social life. Here's what damage your character traits may be doing to you

Always anxious 

Research shows that those who are constantly frazzled are more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's than those with a mellow personality. The claim is based on a study that followed more than 500 individuals for five years. Dementia risk was 50 per cent lower for participants who were calm compared with those who were prone to distress.

No self-control

Late for appointments? Can't keep your desk organised? These seemingly innocuous qualities could take a toll on your health. People who are conscientious — organised, self-disciplined are better off. The boost in lifetime can be attributed partly to the fact that highly conscientious individuals are less likely to smoke or drink in excess, and live more stable and less stressful lives.

Lots of fretting

People who are constantly worried and anxious over the smallest of issues are prone to depression, die sooner on average than their chilled-out counterparts. A recently reported study that followed 1800 men for over three decades suggests this because neurotics are also more likely to smoke. Having a cigarette eases anxiety for a short while, but short-term payoff is not worth it as it makes you ill you down the line.

Sulk pots 

No one wants to be near them and have their 'moroseness' rub on to them. But the gloomy, inhibited person is not just at a disadvantage socially, but also physically. A preliminary study of more than 180 patients suffering from peripheral arterial disease (plaque build-up in the arteries) showed participants with so-called type D, or distressed, personality, had an increased odd of dying sooner than other people. Type-D people were more likely to experience negative emotions while bottling up feelings.

Cynics 
Cynics who tend to be suspicious and mistrustful of others, a character trait that scientists refer to as hostility, may have an increased likelihood of developing heart disease. These are people who are likely to read into people's behaviour as a hostile motive. Hostile individuals tend to experience more stress, which can cause spikes in an immune-system protein called C3 that has been linked with various diseases, including diabetes. Research participants with higher scores on hostility showed an increase in these proteins while the non-hostile men showed no such increase.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

08.08.2015

Exercise in early teens could curb diabetes risk

When it comes to curbing diabetes risk through physical activities, exercise before age 13 has greater impact than at a later stage, new research has found.

The findings could help design more effective interventions for children by targeting the early teenagers.

Physical activity provides the greatest benefits to adolescent insulin resistance - a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes - when the condition peaks at age 13, the findings showed.

But exercise may not lower insulin resistance at age 16.

"Our study found that physical activity reduced this early-teenage peak in insulin resistance but had no impact at age 16," said one of the researchers Brad Metcalf, senior lecturer in physical activity and health at University of Exeter in England.

"We are not saying that 16-year-olds don't need to be physically active, there are other health benefits to be gained from being active at all ages," Metcalf pointed out.

The researchers measured insulin resistance, a condition which leads to high blood sugar and is a precursor to Type 2 diabetes, in the same 300 children every year from age nine through to age 16.

The results showed that the condition was 17 percent lower in the more active adolescents at age 13 independently of body fat levels, but this difference diminished progressively over the next three years.

"A reduction in this peak could lessen the demand on the cells that produce insulin during this critical period, which may preserve them for longer in later life," Metcalf said.

The study was published in the journal Diabetologia.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

08.08.2015

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment