PEOPLE with Type A personalities have a higher probability of suffering heart attacks than people with Type B personalities this is established. The Type A personality consists of a range of characteristics that generally produce stress, and research in the 1980s showed that, of these characteristics, cynicism is the most toxic.
It follows therefore that being sensibly trusting of each other makes not only for a more contented and happier life but is also healthier. Generally, stress is a causative factor in a majority of illnesses and it is therefore important to know how to minimise it.
The fact that the mind can affect the body has been known since ancient times. However, the psychosomatic dimensions of disease have been neglected by modern medicine. The history of modern medicine has been dominated by the "one disease, one germ" doctrine, i.e., every disease is caused by a single physical factor. This approach has been very productive in many instances and has resulted in the conquest of the major infectious diseases, such as pneumonia.
But it is obviously not a very fruitful doctrine with which to confront diseases of multi factorial causation, and is of little use in dealing with mind body interactions in disease. Consequently medicine is making extremely disappointing progress in dealing with the two major killer diseases of modern civilisation cancer and heart disease both of multi factorial causation and, at least, in the case of heart disease, having a pronounced psychosomatic element.
In 1959 two American cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, defined Type A personality. The classic Type A personality exhibits three characteristics he/she is highly competitive and ambitious, speaks rapidly and interrupts others frequently, is cynical and is seized by hostility and anger with uncommon frequency. In short, he/she is constitutionally unable to sit back and relax. People who do not exhibit these pronounced personality characteristics are denoted as Type B personalities.
Soon afterwards large scale survey studies showed that Type A personalities were much more likely to develop heart disease than Type B personalities. The question now was, do each of the three characteristics of the Type A personality contribute equally to predisposing the individual to heart disease, or is the effect mainly due to one or two of these characteristics? Further survey studies showed the main toxic element in the Tyke A personality resides in the area of hostility. Careful analysis of this area more precisely defines it as cynicism, i.e., a contemptuous distrust of human nature and motives. Oscar Wilde, in Lady Windermere's Fan, defined the cynic as "a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing". Another quote, attributed to H.L. Mencken, defines the cynic as "a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin."
How can a mental attitude lead to the development of the disease of atherosclerosis? Atherosclerosis is a disease characterised by the laying down of fatty deposits on the inner walls of arteries, thereby constricting them and, if it progresses, eventually leading to a heart attack. A cynical person, mistrustful of the world, is constantly on their guard, or, in other words, is constantly in a state of arousal. Such a person will naturally secrete a higher level of certain hormones into the blood than will a person who spends time in a less aroused state.
These hormones, principally adrenalin, cortisol and testosterone exert a constant wear and tear effect oil body organs and mobilise fat into the blood from fat depots. A person Who tends to over secrete these hormones will regularly establish blood fat levels that favour the laying down of fatty deposits in the arteries.
I don't know to what extent the development of cynicism in a person is determined by hereditary factors. However, it seems very likely that cynicism must also be, to some extent at least, a learned attitude. Parents and teachers can therefore help children to grow into happier and healthier adults by teaching them to adopt sensible trusting attitudes towards the world.
Unfortunately, the ill effects of the stressful life style of the Type A personality are not confined to heart disease. It is reckoned that stress is a contributory causative factor in about 70 per cent of all illnesses. In addition to heart disease, these illnesses include disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, for example ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, acne, psoriasis, alopecia areata, and various mental disorders.
A particularly unfortunate development in recent decades has been the increase in levels of stress experienced by students in all the levels of education. There are two components contributing to this increase one is under our own control and is probably the major factor, the other is endemic to the system and is, to a large extent, beyond our control.
Our educational and social system has endemic characteristics that produce more stress now for students than in the past. Lack of employment prospects and technological change in the workplace have combined to devalue the worth of the Leaving Certificate as a passport to a job. The main value of the Leaving Cert nowadays is as an entry ticket to third level. And of course the "quality" of the seat in university to which your ticket will admit you is determined by the number of points you achieve in your Leaving Cert.
Our educational system is competitive and inherently stressful. This has always been so. The factors I described above have increased stress in recent times but not to the extent that is commonly claimed. A much bigger contributor to increased stress, in my opinion, is the compulsion felt by many, particularly the media, to focus on stress in education. Secondary education has been made miserable for so many teenagers by this unrelenting emphasis on the "points race".
There is little we can do in the short term about much of the endemic stress in education and it is unwise to dwell much on the matter. Mark Twain had some good advice in this regard. "If you have to swallow a frog, don't look at it too long."
Stress is an enemy of health and happiness. We should all consciously strive to manage stress in our lives. A very good book which outlines a sensible blueprint for students that will enable them to negotiate a happy and productive path through second and third level is The Student A guide to Success in Second and Third Level Education, by Dr Mary Dineen and Dr Breda McLeavey (Folens, 1992). Christ also gave us very good general advice a long time ago "Can any of you live a minute longer by worrying about it? If you can't manage even such a small thing, why worry about the other things?"