Women's heart rate helps detect health risks

Measuring a woman's heart rate at rest can help predict her risk of heart attack or dying from heart disease, giving doctors a simple, inexpensive way to monitor health risks. Postmenopausal women who had the highest resting heart rate were 26 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack or die from cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest rates.

Previous studies have linked resting heart rate to such problems in men but the relationship has been less certain for women, in part because trials did not include enough women to get a statistically significant result.

Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors.

Resting heart rate measures beats per minute after sitting still to gauge how well the heart works when not stressed. Women with resting heart rates of more than 76 beats per minute were found to be 26 per cent more likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease than those with heart rates of 62 beats per minute or lower.

"People have to put in perspective that it is not as much as smoking but it is still a clinically meaningful amount."

Researchers compensated for factors known to increase heart attack and disease risk such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and drinking, and monitored the women for an average of nearly eight years.

Although resting heart rate is usually lower among people who are physically fit. The measurement could help predict heart attack risk for women regardless of how much they exercise. Researchers said they found no correlation between resting heart rate and stroke.

Reference: Indian Express

Why crying is therapeutic after breakup

Shedding tears often eases our sense of shock or trauma after a painful breakup. But why is the act so beneficial? And is there such a thing as a "bad cry"?

University of South Florida psychologists Jonathan Rottenberg and Lauren M. Bylsma, along with colleague Ad JJM Vingerhoets of Tilburg University analysed more than 3,000 recent crying experiences (outside of lab) and found that the benefits of crying depend entirely on the what, where and when of a particular crying episode.

They found that the majority of respondents reported improvements in their mood following a bout of crying. However, a third of the participants reported no improvement in mood and a tenth felt worse after crying.

The survey also revealed that criers who received social support during their crying episode were the most likely to report improvements in mood.

Research to date has not always produced a clear picture of the benefits of crying, in part because the results often seem to depend on how crying is studied, said a Southern Florida release.

The authors note several challenges in accurately studying crying behaviour in a laboratory setting. Volunteers who cry in a lab setting often do not describe their experiences as being cathartic or making them feel better.

Rather, crying in a lab setting often results in the study participants feeling worse; this may be due to the stressful conditions of the study itself, such as being videotaped or watched by research assistants.

However, these lab studies have provided interesting findings about the physical effects of crying. Criers do show calming effects such as slower breathing, but they also experience a lot of unpleasant stress and arousal, including increased heart rate and sweating. Research has shown that the effects of crying also depend on who is shedding the tears. For example, individuals with anxiety or mood disorders are least likely to experience the positive effects of crying. These findings will appear in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

ref: thetimesofindia