The higher education health effect
You knew that going to university is good for your intellectual health, but what you may not have known is that it is also good for your blood pressure. Researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island have discovered that the more stages of education you go through, the lower your blood pressure will be as you go through life; those with postgraduate degrees fare particularly well.
But if you really want to improve your health and your chances of longevity, you should also – as another study at the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina has shown – go through life with an optimistic attitude. Doing so visibly reduces heart disease and strokes. So your formula for a long and healthy life is to go through higher education up to a PhD, and then use your qualifications to effect and stay optimistic. Just don’t read or listen to the news.
Tags: blood pressure, health, heart disease, optimism
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March 2, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Correlations such as this are somewhat dubious; it reminds me of the old joke about some people’s use of statistics being like a drunk’s use of a lamp-post -for support rather than for illumination. I would guess that diet and physical activity are far more relevant than the papers one has written or the books one has read. Years back someone published a paper showing the number of Republicans elected to the US senate correlated strongly with the number of sunspots at that time. Correlation does not imply causation!
March 2, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Oh for heaven’s sake, Eugene, don’t spoil it. We need all the arguments for HE that we can get. And in any case, who’s to say that US Republican Senators don’t cause sunspots; I think the jury’s out on that one… 🙂
March 2, 2011 at 2:17 pm
There is a fair bit of good evidence by health economists which go beyond correlations and which show that education is beneficial to health.
Try this for starters:
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~berc/working/Health_and_educ_2-2-2011WPS.pdf
March 2, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Tell that to some one finishing off their Phd…
March 2, 2011 at 11:36 pm
Tell that to someone trying to get a full-time (let alone permanent!) job in the university sector after finishing their PhD!
March 3, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Amen or Awomen!
March 2, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Does this study have anything to say about the blood pressure of those working in higher education?!
March 2, 2011 at 5:26 pm
now, I really needed to read this, having marked 20 dissertations today, such a *Feel Good* feeling 🙂
March 2, 2011 at 5:28 pm
I know, Anna. I imagine your blood pressure is low, you’re relaxed and optimistic 🙂
March 3, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Perhaps someone should forward this research to former German minister and former PhD Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. It may offer some small comfort…although I doubt it!
March 3, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Ah Ros, that has given me the best laugh all day…