Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 18, 1991 TAG: 9102160262
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF NESMITH COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The subjects of the study are being recruited from major corporations, said Dr. Meyer Friedman, a San Francisco cardiologist who nearly 30 years ago suggested that hostility and pressure leave some people vulnerable to heart disease.
Such persons, known as "Type A's," kill themselves with stress, Friedman believes, possibly because hormones produced in a lifetime dominated by constant "fight-or-flight" situations induce the body to release excess fat into the bloodstream and push up the concentration of artery-damaging cholesterol.
Their counterparts, "Type B's," have greater self-esteem and less hostility toward co-workers and family members. They are less driven by time pressures and trivial "trash events," he said.
The 3,000 subjects of the new study, being directed by Mt. Zion Medical Center of the University of California, San Francisco, are "Type A's." They are all 45 or older, and are all considered candidates for heart attacks, said Friedman.
For the next five years, half of them will be counseled on ways to reduce stress in their daily lives. The other half will not.
"We'll be giving them doses of common sense," said Dr. Friedman, who believes "Type A" personalities are primarily a package of bad habits that can be broken. "When we get through with these guys, they learn to enjoy a traffic jam, or at least tolerate it without getting mad."
He predicted that after 10 years the 1,500 men and women who are taught to give up the stressful lifestyle will have fewer heart attacks, as well as fewer cancers.
by CNB