Optimism, pessimism, and coronary plaque
What role do emotions play in heart disease? Will they impact on your
success or failure in controlling coronary plaque and reducing your
heart scan score? Or is it all just fluff, the preaching of
psychologists caught up in the mumbo-jumbo of feelings and emotions?
"Twixt the optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll:
The optimist sees the doughnut
But the pessimist sees the hole."
- M. Wilson, 1915
All of us, even the most seemingly silent, conduct an active internal
dialogue. It’s the conversation we have with ourselves during all of our
waking lives. We internally comment on events around us, our perceptions
of people, on whether they like us or not, our fears, feelings, etc.
What sort of internal dialogue are you conducting? Does it sound like:
Why is he/she always so late?
Why do people always get in my way?
I never have any luck.
I feel helpless. I don’t know what to do.
Or, does it sound more like:
He/she must have gotten tied up in something.
I’ll have to find a way around this problem.
It didn’t work out this time, but there’s always a next time!
I’m going to learn how to do better.
Negative emotions come in a wide variety of shades and colors.
Sometimes, negative emotions serve a useful purpose. Fear or worry, for
instance, may be justified at times, like when your 17-year old daughter
comes home an hour late smelling like alcohol. Some degree of negative
emotions are an inevitable part of everyone’s life, no matter how happy,
wealthy, or well-adjusted. Negative emotions are programmed into us as
part of a survival mechanism. If physical danger to you is imminent,
fear or anxiety is justified.
Then how do we identify the emotions that magnify risk for heart
disease? Once we do, are they modifiable? Or, are you doomed to a life
of worry, anxiety, anger, and an escalating heart scan score that ends
up in heart attack?
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