Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that hypochondriacs lived an average of five years less than those who were more relaxed about their health. results published In JAMA Psychiatry.
Approximately 42 thousand people participated in the research. About a thousand volunteers suffered from hypochondria – a specific mental disorder characterized by constant excessive worry about one’s own health and obsessive thinking about the possibility of developing one or more dangerous diseases. The scientists collected information about the participants’ mental and physical health and then began monitoring them. After 20 years, it was revealed that people with the disease lived an average of 70 years, while healthy volunteers lived 75 years.
Participants with this disorder were almost four times more likely to engage in self-harming behavior. They also had a higher risk of death from respiratory diseases such as flu and COVID-19. Researchers have suggested that poor health (sweating, bloating, headaches), which is a typical symptom of hypochondria, leads to chronic stress, which causes inflammation in the body and becomes a provocateur of many diseases.
Long-term inflammation is associated with a number of problems, including a weakened immune system and the body’s subsequent ability to fight infections.
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