(MSNBC.com) — It’s no secret that high blood pressure ups your risk for heart attack and stroke. But now scientists are saying it could also affect how you perceive emotions.
In a new study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers found that individuals with higher than normal blood pressures not only had a tough time assigning emotions to text passages they read but also had problems recognizing angry, fearful, sad and happy faces when looking at photographs.
The phenomenon is called “emotional dampening,” a kind of reduced response to both positive and negative life events, explains lead author James McCubbin, professor of psychology at Clemson University.
In previous studies, individuals with emotional dampening showed reduced responses to both pain and stress.
According to McCubbin, missing emotional cues is like “… living in a world of email without smiley faces.”
“We put smiley faces in emails to show when we are just kidding,” he says. “Otherwise some people may misinterpret our humor and get angry.”
Indeed, folks who have a problem putting both verbal and non-verbal cues like expressions into the correct context, can have problems understanding subtleties in conversation, which can lead to poor job performance, communication problems and distrust of others. Since emotional dampening also applies to positive emotions, these folks may not reap the “restorative benefits” of hobbies, vacations, or even the support of friends and family, McCubbin says.
For the study, the researchers asked 106 African-American men and women, average age 53, to evaluate emotional expressions in faces and sentences using a special gauge called the Perception of Affect Test.
Blood pressure and other cardiac-related readings were measured continuously during the test.
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I don’t know for sure if this is what happened but I have problems with showing my emotions. My parents did too. And my parents had HBP and now I do. So this article has been enlightening.
How do we know which is cause and which is effect?
I have been treated for high blood pressure for over 20 years and have no trouble showing my emotions. In fact, as I get older I show more gestures of friendship and hugs than I did when I was younger. I think this theory is all BS.
There are a lot of stimuli that negatively effect the BP of African- Americans, especially our willingness to share our true emotions. This is a very thought provoking subject, thank you for sharing this. I believe the “typical” middle-aged African-American does have elevated BP, if for no other reasons than diet and excessive stress, both self induced and externally induced.
What about thinking that everyone is out to get you? I have a friend with high BP and he always takes everything everyone says or does like it’s against him personally.