Cynicism and Senior Health

Cynicism: Cynical Hostility Can Cause Seniors Physical Harm

 

The phrase “mind over matter” is most often used when referencing the way positive thinking can make the body feel better. But the phrase is also true with regard to negative thoughts harming the body. The state of one’s mind has more to do with health than you might think. In fact, it’s capable of influencing not only one’s mood but also physical health, including that of the brain.

Cynical hostility, also sometimes called chronic anger, is defined by general cynicism and mistrust in relationships with others. It’s associated with increased risk of serious illness such as heart disease (with an effect similar in magnitude to that of high blood pressure) and significant decreases in length of life.

Cynicism Can Decrease Life Span

One of the ways hostility may decrease health and longevity is by accelerating cellular aging. A study comparing men with high versus low levels of cynical hostility found that hostility decreased telomere length, a marker of accelerated cellular aging. Telomeres are a component of your DNA that protect from DNA damage and mutations linked to age related disease and cancer. Their length is known to predict lifespan. Cynical hostility may be a reasonable adaption to past experiences (such as discrimination) but appears to come at a serious cost to health. Cynical distrust is also associated with increased risk of dementia.

Cynical Distrust Can Increase Risk of Dementia

Older people with high levels of cynical distrust have a 2.5 times greater risk of developing dementia than those with low levels. A growing amount of research shows that negative emotion, and cynicism in particular, may lead to poor health, and it’s dangerous in a number of ways. For instance, cynical people are more likely to smoke and gain excess weight, and less likely to exercise. They also struggle more with stress and have higher levels of chronic inflammation, which is linked to chronic diseases including dementia.

Research has shown:

• Women with cynical, hostile attitudes are more likely to die prematurely and have higher rates of death from coronary heart disease than women with “positive future expectations”
• People with cynical attitudes may suffer more from stress, and do not get as much of the stress-buffering benefits offered by positive social support
• Cynical hostility is associated with poor oral health
• Cynical hostility is associated with increased markers of inflammation, which may contribute to increased heart risks

 

Cynicism is part of a defensive posture we take to protect ourselves. It’s typically triggered when we feel hurt by or angry at something, and instead of dealing with those emotions directly, we allow them to fester and skew our outlook. When we grow cynical toward one thing in our lives, we may slowly start to turn on everything.

It’s unclear how cynical hostility could be changed but behavioral counselling, stress management and social support may play a role. It’s all about changing one’s attitude from being negative to being positive in order to reap the physical benefits of positivity.

 

BLOG Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Writer: Ryan Allen