In line with its mission, the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony makes every effort to provide reliable medical content supported by the latest scientific knowledge. The additional flag “Checked Content” indicates that the article has been reviewed by or written directly by a physician. This two-step verification: a medical journalist and a doctor allows us to provide the highest quality content in line with current medical knowledge.
Our commitment in this area has been appreciated, among others, by by the Association of Journalists for Health, which awarded the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony with the honorary title of the Great Educator.
Age and gender significantly determine our response to stress. Women with a defensive orientation are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, while the health of older men is negatively affected by low defensiveness, according to Canadian scientists.
The results of their research are published in the journal Psychophysiology.
In psychology, defensive orientation is characterized by withdrawal and avoidance. A defensive man is not focused on achieving goals, but on maintaining the current state of affairs, and tries to avoid potentially threatening actions.
For women, a strong defensive response related to self-esteem or the judgment of the environment can result in hypertension and increased heart rate. Interestingly, in older men, the opposite relationship is observed – the work of the heart is negatively affected by low defensiveness.
These conclusions are the result of a collaboration of scientists from three Canadian universities: the University of Montreal, the University of Quebec and the University of McGill. 81 healthy working men and 118 women participated in their research.
According to Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, a cardiologist at the University of Montreal, the body’s response to stress in both women and men is related to building self-esteem and nurturing social bonds.
The need to belong is a basic need of every human being. This need contributed to the survival of our ancestors. It is possible that most people today consider social exclusion to be a threat to their existence, and a strong defensive response helps maintain self-esteem in the face of this potential threat, adds research co-author Bianca D’Antono.
People participating in the research had three tasks related to different levels of perceived stress. The first task was to read a neutral text about Antarctic geography to a person of the same sex. During the second experiment, the subjects were to play the roles assigned to them, impersonating both agreeable and kind people, as well as aggressive characters. The final task was to discuss abortion.
During each task, the researchers monitored the participants’ heart rate and blood pressure, and checked the level of cortisone in their saliva. After analyzing the results, it turned out that women and older men showed a stronger response to stress both on the part of the cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems, as well as the endocrine system.
While these results clearly indicate a potential health risk, the researchers emphasize that more analyzes are needed to investigate the long-term impact of the relationship between defensiveness and stress response on disease development (PAP).