Self Help

While it is well-established that stress can bring on ulcers, only recently have we have begun to see a relationship between stress and the heart. Heart attacks are largely a modern problem. Although they have been reported in the medical literature for centuries, as recently as the late 1920’s this disease was rare in North America. Then things began to change, until now in the United States over a million people have heart attacks every year. Most of the victims are men over the age of 65, but women have heart attacks too, and so do younger people (and the incidence of heart disease in these two groups is rising sharply).

What causes heart attacks? The fact is that nobody knows for sure. It is generally agreed that things like high blood pressure, a large amount of cholesterol in the blood, lack of exercise, obesity, and cigarette smoking all contribute to heart disease, but more and more it is beginning to appear that the single greatest cause of heart attack is the stress of life.

This is a view that has been held with special enthusiasm by two San Francisco cardiologists named Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman. These men divide the population into two broad categories, Type A and Type B. The Type A person is ambitious, aggressive, self demanding, competitive, and pushing to be successful. He or she “goes all the time” and is driven by the clock. In contrast, Type B people are more casual. They are less competitive, less worried about the time, and not so preoccupied with achievement. The two types even differ in their approach to relaxation. Type B can enjoy casual conversation and forget his work during a game of golf. Type A competes as intensively in sports as elsewhere and is even inclined to take up jogging. That, states Dr. Friedman, is the best way for such people to achieve sudden death at age 35.

While it probably is true that nobody fits these categories exactly, most of us tend to fall into one or the other of the two classifications. After studying this problem for over twenty years, Drs. Friedman and Rosenman believe that when people live a Type A lifestyle there is seven times more risk of heart attack than with a Type B mode of living. Even if they don’t smoke, get little exercise, show normal blood pressure, and have no family history of coronary disease.