Terrorism fear is increasing heart disease & other ailments

[Ichingcarpenter]

If you have found yourself discussing whether terrorism threat levels or cable news networks terrorism alerts are having a negative affect on your health, researchers have confirmed the implications. Terrorism fear-mongering is increasing heart disease risk in Americans. A group of researchers have published their findings about heart disease, terrorism and 9/11 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. If you want to dig into the study yourself, you can read the published report here.

The study was completed on 2,729 adults and was conducted over a 3 year period. The participants in the study were used because they had existing health surveys and information done on them previous to September 11th, 2001. By using participants with previous accepted information on them before 9/11 it created a baseline to track any increases in health ailments. Other possible problems were taken into consideration for the study such as pre 9/11 cardiovascular conditions, mental health status, smoking, body mass and a range of other preexisting conditions.

It was found that overall there was a 53% increased incidence of cardiovascular ailments over the 3 years following September 11th, 2001. Cardiovascular DiseaseNot all individuals reported that they had an ongoing worry about terrorism after the 9/11 attacks but roughly 5% of the total participants did say they were worrying about terrorism in their daily lives. Another quick thing to note is that none of the participants in this study were from states that were attacked or predicted to have attacks, such as the state of New York.

If you take the 5% figure and apply it to the U.S. current population which is at 303,445,424 according to the live U.S. Census clock here, then you get 15,127,271 Americans that are most likely experiencing acute stress reactions that are providing them with cardiovascular ailments. Obviously not all people are going to find themselves with a heart attack or stroke in the next couple of years, but it is all but proven that terrorism and the terrorism alerts on TV are feeding unhealthy conditions for everyone.>>>>snip


http://businessshrink.biz/psychologyofbusiness/2008/02/16/terrorism-fear-is-increasing-heart-disease-other-ailments/

[Warpy]

1. Most people I know aren't scared at all of terrorists with bombs.

They are, however, living with constant background terror of men in expensive suits terminating their lives with a stroke of a pen closing their jobs here and opening them up in China or India.

If they want to know where an upswing in heart and GI disease is coming from, they need to check something besides them Ay-rabs.

What an intensely stupid article. Really.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. I have a couple of different neighbors that watch Faux news

They are caught up in the spin and even express their fears
to me, which I know they wouldn't unless it raised their blood pressure.

I then have to show them the facts on why most of the stories that get them
hyped up are a bunch of crap.

[moondust]

3. Senior citizens.

I'd be curious to know how many seniors have been scared to death by Republican fear mongering. I think a lot of seniors watch a lot of TV. There may be significant numbers that should be added to Bushco's body count.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. A Propaganda of fear (terrorizing) has a way of debilitating a populace

These a-holes in office are traitors to the country and its people.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I just happen to find this when that funny thread came up

PANIC IN THE STREETS: US wakes up without Protect America Act!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2875897&mesg_id=2875897

[elizfeelinggreat]

5. If it was common knowledge

that fearmongering is a harmful thing we might see a change. Once people are aware they're being manipulated it's harder to achieve the same result.

from the link (oh, to have this posted in every doctor's office!):

"Our brave new world delivers terror threats as breaking news by the minute, every day, around the world. It could be beneficial to turn the TV off when you’re getting too much of your fill of fear selling, as it only has a possibility of changing your own health for the worse. When the news networks make every atrocity seem so close to home, it’s hard to establish the real risk to our daily lives, which is usually a very small amount of risk."


Can you see the cable news execs' heads exploding if this was general knowledge? And don't look for them to blame the Greedy GOP/PNAC plan that seems a blueprint for this behavior. Jobs, personal safety (in terms of food, environment, national infrastructure, on and on), social safety nets, most of us get stressed out just thinking about those things. We don't expect help anymore, we don't expect much, certainly nothing in return for our taxes but shooting at the 'bad guys' and we all know we're one traumatic event away from horror.

I am hopeful that the dramatic primary turnouts give our party the courage to turn things around. :)

[flvegan]

6. Worst spin I've ever read.

2,729 in the study. 53% of an increase in cardiovascular ailments over 3 years. Only 5% of the respondents stated they were worried about terrorism in their daily lives.

Quick math:

1446 people had the increase in ailments. 136 were worried about terrorism in their daily lives.

Were those 136 in that 1446?

Sounds like a crappy study to me meant to invoke even more fear.

[Individualist]

7. A survey about the effects of the governing cabal on people with heart disease would be interesting!

I have no doubt it has had an impact on mine.