In this day and age women are bottling up their emotions a lot more and with that, it seems some serious risks need to be taken into consideration. Women who express their emotions are releasing a lot of stress and through that helping their bodies in ways they might not realize.
A study carried out by researchers working with the North American Menopause Society found that bottling your emotions as a woman might make you more likely to have a stroke. For this study, the researchers noted above looked at over three hundred female participants who were either in their early stages of menopause or who had already experienced as such regarding their levels of expression when it came to their emotions. These women self-reported on whether they expressed their anger/sadness and other things of the sort and how frequently they did-so.
From here they used ultrasound imaging to look at the amount of plaque buildup within the necks of these women that can be present when issues like strokes occur. This can cut off the blood supply to the brain from these carotid arteries which contributes to strokes and their prevalence. Within the women who said they bottled their emotions the most, higher levels of this carotid plaque was present.
Karen Jakubowski lead author for this study said as follows in a press release on the topic:
“Given increased public health interest in women’s experiences in intimate relationships, our results suggest that women’s socio-emotional expression may be relevant to their cardiovascular health.”
“Studies like this one are valuable as they highlight the importance of understanding how a woman’s emotional disposition can affect her physical health.”
“These results should encourage healthcare providers to take into consideration socio-emotional factors when outlining preventative care plans for their patients.”
These findings were presented during the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting in Chicago on the 25th-28th of September and really got people thinking. When we self-silence we do avoid conflict, but is doing it helping us in the long-run? Should we be sacrificing our mental and physical health in such a manner by partaking in the act time and time again?
That having been said the increase cannot necessarily be linked up with bottling emotions on a direct scale just yet, more research will need to be done in regards. This study is important because it points out an association that we have otherwise not discussed much if at all. According to the CDC, someone has a stroke roughly every fourty seconds here in the US alone and those are odds I do not want to play with.
What do you think about all of this? I for one will be working to express myself more properly moving forward. If managing my emotions can help me reduce my risks of something so life-threatening, I will do all I can to properly express myself.