Gents, a word to the wise…
If you want to keep your arteries clear and tack some years on to your life span, try keeping your cool.
Doing so will cause your level of HDL cholesterol to increase—a very good thing.
This runs counter to former thinking that when a man displayed hostility, he was hurting his heart by increasing his LDL "bad" cholesterol level. It's the LDL cholesterol that transforms into the arterial gunk that clogs up the works.
A new study has helped turn this idea on its head, showing that men who were able to handle their stress better also had higher HDL "good" cholesterol levels. The study was based on 716 men who were on average 65 years old.
Each of the men was asked to recall a stressful situation from the week prior and then choose one of 26 stress-coping strategies to handle that situation. Each of the different strategies was given a score according to the level of hostility that was displayed.
Also, blood samples were taken to measure HDL levels, LDL levels, and triglycerides.
The more hostility a man used to cope with stressful situations correlated with a lower level of HDL.
The researchers did not set out to determine exactly what the mechanics were for what specifically affected those cholesterol levels. But they did offer their suspicion that the blame can most likely be placed on cortisol. The higher your stress level, the more cortisol is released by the bucketful. This in turn affects your blood-fat levels, sending your bad cholesterol level up.
Interestingly, coping strategies had no effect on the LDL-cholesterol levels one way or the other. For the purposes of this particular study, the researchers did not pursue why this would be so.
Overall, the study goes to show that cooler heads prevail—especially in terms of heart health. For more on stress and your heart, refer back to the House Calls I sent to you on August 23rd.
