Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) multiplies the risks of developing hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia by a factor of four to six, psychiatrist Chou Po-han (周伯翰) said yesterday.
A study that he was a part of showed a strong link between PTSD and metabolic syndrome later in life, said Chou, who works at China Medical University Hospital’s Hsinchu Branch.
The study, a collaboration between China Medical University, Harvard University, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital and Tri-Service General Hospital, tracked the health of 4,765 people in Taiwan over 13 years, including 935 people diagnosed with PTSD and 3,812 people without it, he said.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
The findings showed that PTSD increased the probability of developing high blood pressure, blood lipids or diabetes by four to six times, he said.
Risks of metabolic syndrome are heightened by chronic PTSD, because the condition affects the amygdala, which regulates emotional responses, including the fight-or-flight response, he said.
Long-term PTSD causes the amygdala to become overactive, which puts the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive and triggers bone marrow secretions of vascular inflammatory markers, leading to metabolic and vascular stress, he said.
Antidepressants were associated with decreased risks of metabolic syndromes, suggesting that the medication’s effect on halting amygdala overactivity could explain its anti-inflammatory properties identified by previous research, he said.
PTSD is the product of traumatic events that exceeds a person’s ability to withstand distress and the condition causes panic attacks, anxiety and depression, he said.
The research has been published in the March-April issue of General Hospital Psychiatry .
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS