by Kristen Cotolo, RN (comprehensive health support consultant)
The phrase ‘be nice’ can be very common to hear as we are learning and growing during childhood and is a skill that is necessary for us to master during our development to have healthy, well-rounded relationships with others.
Being ‘nice’ helps us in building friendships and connections, but recent research indicates that ‘being nice’ has benefits that reach far beyond childhood…your life could depend on it.
There have been many research studies on the role of stress and health, and the direct connection of higher stress leading to poorer health has been well established by science and is well accepted by the medical community.
But how can being ‘nice’ help improve your health and the health of those around you?
In a paper published online August 16, 2010 in Hypertension that was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Aging and the Department of Health and Human Services, it was found that those who scored highest for antagonistic traits on a standard personality test had up to 40% greater thickening of the carotid arteries on ultrasound compared with people who were more agreeable.
The effect of this thickening on artery walls was similar to patients who have metabolic syndrome, say the researchers. Where the personality traits of antagonistic people, particularly those who are manipulative, competitive and aggressive, could be increasing their risk of heart attack or stroke.
In this particular study, associations between six facets of trait antagonism and IMT (intima-media thickness) in 5614 Italians from four villages in Sardinia were studied as part of the Sardinia Study of Aging. IMT is a measurement of the thickness of artery walls, used to both detect the presence and to track the progression of atherosclerotic disease in humans.
Participants' ages in the study ranged from 14 to 94 years, with an average age of 42. 58% of the study participants were female.
In the study, participants answered a standard personality questionnaire, including six components of agreeableness, which included trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness.
The researchers also took two measures of IMT, three years apart, to see whether the presence or absence of these traits predicted increases in arterial thickening. To help account for influencing factors, participants were also screened for high blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglycerides, fasting glucose, and diabetes, and the results were adjusted for these parameters.
Those who scored in the bottom 10% of agreeableness and were therefore the most antagonistic had about a 40% increased risk for elevated IMT; the effect on artery walls was similar to patients having metabolic syndrome, say the researchers. And although arterial thickening is a sign of aging, young people with antagonistic traits already had arterial thickening present, even after controlling for confounding factors such as smoking, researchers said.
"We found that although men tended to have thicker arterial walls than women, antagonistic women had [thickness of] arterial walls similar to that of antagonistic men," researcher Angela Sutin told heartwire . "So the association between antagonism and arterial thickness was much stronger for women."
She cautions, that this was a population-based sample and more research needs to be done in clinical settings.
Nevertheless, doctors might want to consider antagonism and other facets of personality traits when assessing an individual's risk, she says. The study results could help determine who might benefit from targeted interventions such as stress reduction and anger management.
The phrase ‘be nice’ can be very common to hear as we are learning and growing during childhood and is a skill that is necessary for us to master during our development to have healthy, well-rounded relationships with others.
Being ‘nice’ helps us in building friendships and connections, but recent research indicates that ‘being nice’ has benefits that reach far beyond childhood…your life could depend on it.
There have been many research studies on the role of stress and health, and the direct connection of higher stress leading to poorer health has been well established by science and is well accepted by the medical community.
But how can being ‘nice’ help improve your health and the health of those around you?
In a paper published online August 16, 2010 in Hypertension that was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute on Aging and the Department of Health and Human Services, it was found that those who scored highest for antagonistic traits on a standard personality test had up to 40% greater thickening of the carotid arteries on ultrasound compared with people who were more agreeable.
The effect of this thickening on artery walls was similar to patients who have metabolic syndrome, say the researchers. Where the personality traits of antagonistic people, particularly those who are manipulative, competitive and aggressive, could be increasing their risk of heart attack or stroke.
In this particular study, associations between six facets of trait antagonism and IMT (intima-media thickness) in 5614 Italians from four villages in Sardinia were studied as part of the Sardinia Study of Aging. IMT is a measurement of the thickness of artery walls, used to both detect the presence and to track the progression of atherosclerotic disease in humans.
Participants' ages in the study ranged from 14 to 94 years, with an average age of 42. 58% of the study participants were female.
In the study, participants answered a standard personality questionnaire, including six components of agreeableness, which included trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness.
The researchers also took two measures of IMT, three years apart, to see whether the presence or absence of these traits predicted increases in arterial thickening. To help account for influencing factors, participants were also screened for high blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglycerides, fasting glucose, and diabetes, and the results were adjusted for these parameters.
Those who scored in the bottom 10% of agreeableness and were therefore the most antagonistic had about a 40% increased risk for elevated IMT; the effect on artery walls was similar to patients having metabolic syndrome, say the researchers. And although arterial thickening is a sign of aging, young people with antagonistic traits already had arterial thickening present, even after controlling for confounding factors such as smoking, researchers said.
"We found that although men tended to have thicker arterial walls than women, antagonistic women had [thickness of] arterial walls similar to that of antagonistic men," researcher Angela Sutin told heartwire . "So the association between antagonism and arterial thickness was much stronger for women."
She cautions, that this was a population-based sample and more research needs to be done in clinical settings.
Nevertheless, doctors might want to consider antagonism and other facets of personality traits when assessing an individual's risk, she says. The study results could help determine who might benefit from targeted interventions such as stress reduction and anger management.
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