Hostility and Cardiovascular Disease

Sounds Stimulation on In Vitro HL1 Cells: A Pilot Study and a Theoretical Physical Model

Mechanical vibrations seem to affect the behaviour of different cell types and the functions of different organs. Pressure waves, including acoustic waves (sounds), could affect cytoskeletal molecules via coherent changes in their spatial organization and mechano-transduction signalling. We analyzed the sounds spectra and their fractal features. Cardiac muscle HL1 cells were exposed to different sounds, were stained for cytoskeletal markers (phalloidin, beta-actin, alpha-tubulin, alpha-actinin-1), and studied with multifractal analysis (using FracLac for ImageJ). A single cell was live-imaged and its dynamic contractility changes in response to each different sound were analysed (using Musclemotion for ImageJ). Different sound stimuli seem to influence the contractility and the spatial organization of HL1 cells, resulting in a different localization and fluorescence emission of cytoskeletal proteins. Since the cellular behaviour seems to correlate with the fractal structure of the sound used, we speculate that it can influence the cells by virtue of the different sound waves’ geometric properties that we have photographed and filmed. A theoretical physical model is proposed to explain our results, based on the coherent molecular dynamics. We stress the role of the systemic view in the understanding of the biological activity.

Hostility, religious involvement, gratitude, and self-rated health in late life

OBJECTIVES

This study evaluates a latent variable model that assesses the relationships among hostility, church attendance, helping others, gratitude, and self-rated health.

METHODS

The participants come from the sixth wave of a nationwide survey of older adults (N = 1,011).

RESULTS

The data suggest that older individuals who go to church less often help others less frequently, older people who help others less are less grateful, and older adults who are less grateful rate their health in a less favorable manner. In addition, the data indicate that older people with high hostility scores help others less often and are less grateful. The results reveal that the way in which older people view their health may be traced in part to the interplay between personality traits (i.e., hostility) and virtues that are part of most faith traditions (e.g., helping others).