We sometimes say that high blood pressure increases your risk of stroke and heart attack. But can it make you a little crazy?
A new and complex study has found that high diastolic blood pressure — the lower of the two numbers in a blood pressure reading — can cause neuroticism.
Or, in other words, it can lead to an increase in neurotic behaviors such as perfectionism, self-criticism, irritability, and dissatisfaction – all of which are supported to some extent by obsession.
What is neuroticism?
Neuroticism is a personality trait and not a mental health condition.
Neurotic behaviors can be beneficial in their obsessive aspect, which manifests as perseverance and perfection seeking, although mainly as a negative persuasion.
There are personal protective benefits to be gained from maintaining a skeptical view of others.
We all have the neuroticism known as one. five big personality traitsin our makeup.
The other four traits are agreeableness, extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness.
Neuroticism as a gateway to trouble
In healthy people, other traits keep neuroticism in check so it doesn’t affect functioning, although it can be hard on relationships even in milder presentations.
However, people with high levels neuroticism «Reacts poorly to environmental stress, interprets ordinary situations as threatening, and may experience minor disappointments as hopelessly overwhelming.»
neuroticism is not the same thing neurosis, It is a diagnosable psychological disorder that impairs quality of life without impairing a person’s perception of reality.
However, neuroticism can foster serious mental health problems and is recognized as a public health concern because it provides «a dispositional vulnerability for a wide variety of different forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, mood, substance, somatic symptom, and eating disorders.» . ”.
What is its connection with high blood pressure?
The relationship between mental health and high blood pressure is not fully understood, but it appears to be a two-way dynamic.
As a 2014 study observed“Patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension may experience many negative emotions that increase their risk of developing mental health disorders, particularly anxiety and depression.”
And as an explanatory Mayo Clinic He advises: “Anxiety does not cause long-term high blood pressure (hypertension). But anxiety attacks can cause dramatic, temporary rises in blood pressure.
«If these temporary spikes occur as often as they do every day, they can damage blood vessels, heart and kidneys, such as chronic high blood pressure.»
And here the situation gets worse: People who are anxious or stressed are «more likely to engage in unhealthy habits that can raise blood pressure, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and overeating.»
All of these can make you gallop to paralyze the country.
For more information on the relationship between hypertension and mental health, see here.
new work
Shanghai inspectors, using an advanced tool, Mendelian randomizationlooked for genetic evidence for a causal relationship between the four components of blood pressure (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, and hypertension) and four psychological states (anxiety, depression, neuroticism, and subjective well-being).
The study included eight large-scale study datasets (genome-wide association studies) containing whole-genome DNA extracted from blood samples predominantly from people of European ancestry.
The key finding was an association in which diastolic blood pressure (measured between heartbeats) had a «genetic causal effect on neuroticism.»
The researchers concluded that appropriate blood pressure management «can reduce neuroticism, neuroticism-causing mood disorders, and cardiovascular disease.»
In other words, fix hypertension and you can go some way towards restoring your mind and heart.
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