“Hostile behaviour is known to increase the risk of heart disease,” explains Professor Craig Jackson, head of psychology at Birmingham City University in the UK. He says aggressive people tend to eat and smoke more, and exercise less than those withother personality types. This kind of behaviour is typical of impatient, goal-driven “Type A” personalities.
“Type A people take on more burdens, don’t look after themselves and don’t have the insight that they’re stressed, which often creates spill-over health issues,” says Professor Jackson. Type A personalities are also more likely to be overweight in middle age and have higher cholesterol and blood pressure, he says.
Meanwhile, research from Duke University Medical Center in the US has found hostile people are more likely to develop irregular heart rhythms and to die before their fifties.
“If you’re Type A, you might not be able to change your personality, but you can channel it in a different direction to safeguard your health,” says Professor Jackson. Meditation and yoga can help.
**Small changes:
Try it: **Eating strong-smelling food if you’re watching your weight. Dutch scientists have found that strong aromas tell our brain to take smaller bites. They think it could be an evolutionary process that stopped cavemen taking large bites of rotten food.
Ditch it: Smoking the occasional cigarette. Tests have revealed that smoking during the weekend damages short-term memory as much as smoking regularly. The toxins from cigarettes affect the connections between nerve cells, says the team from England’s Northumbria University.
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Switch it: **Gritty facial scrubs for gentle cleansers. If you have adult acne – which affects mainly women aged 30 to 50 – avoid scrubs that have a gritty texture. Skin dries out as we age, and US doctors say scrubs irritate it, making adult acne even worse.
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