How Does Your Personality Type Affect Your Health?

How Does Your Personality Type Affect Your Health?

Your Personality and Your Health: The Surprising Truth Revealed

(AscendHealthy.com) – Our personality types develop as we grow, affecting our relationships, education, careers, and more. But could our personality traits also change our wellbeing? Learn about how your personality type affects your health below.

Improve Your Health By Understanding Your Personality Type

We don’t all fit neatly into classic personality type categorizations. But we may recognize certain traits within those categories in ourselves.

By learning the risks associated with our types, we have the opportunity to improve our well-being. Match your personality traits to one of the types below to discover how to boost your health:

  • Type A: If we belong in the type A personality category, we may tend to be perfectionists. Our desire to control and competitive spirit might result in a need to achieve both personally and professionally.
    Health Impact: Researchers have found that type A personalities may have a higher risk of heart disease. Their studies indicated that A types might experience stress and social isolation resulting in high blood pressure, a contributing factor to cardiovascular conditions.
    Reduce Your Risk: We can channel that same determination characterizing type A personalities into improving our health. By taking stress reduction classes and devoting more time to our relationships, we may reduce our risks.
  • Type B: Relaxation is the name of the type B game. If we have a type B personality, we tend to take a laid-back approach to both work and relationships. “Life’s short, why stress?” may be the type B motto.
    Health Impact: That relaxed approach to life may reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease and stomach problems. However, we also might feel so calm that we toss out those reminders from the dentist and doctor for annual teeth-cleanings and wellness exams.
    Reduce Your Risk: If we have type B personality traits, it’s important to maintain our health by scheduling routine doctor and dentist appointments at the beginning of every year.
  • Extroverts: If we are extroverts, we love feeling like we bring the party spirit into every gathering. Our assertive, sociable personalities allow us to make new friends easily.
    Health Impact: Our love of social gatherings may cause us to consume excess calories and alcohol. That tendency could result in obesity, raising our risk of heart disease and diabetes.
    Reduce Your Risk: Extroverts who enjoy group activities might benefit from partnering up with pals to exercise. Staying aware of alcohol consumption and calories at social occasions may improve our health.
  • People-Pleasers: Those of us who are people-pleasers may satisfy others’ needs at the jeopardy of our own desires or needs. Eager to befriend everyone, we might place more value on making our friends happy than ourselves.
    Health Impact: Studies show that people-pleasers feel stressed if they take actions that might hurt their relationships. If we are people-pleasers, we may overeat in social settings to match others’ consumption. We might feel guilty, anxious and stressed if we win a game or get a promotion. Those emotions in turn might harm our immune system, increasing our risk of flu or cold illnesses.
    Reduce Your Risk: Rather than invest so much of our time and energy in helping others feel comfortable, we may need to learn to put our own needs first. That might involve staying on our diet in social settings or feeling happy, rather than guilty, over our achievements.
  • Introverts: As introverts, we may prefer small groups of close pals to big gatherings of acquaintances. We may feel happiest when we are alone in our own homes.
    Health Impact: If we have a career that requires interacting with strangers every day, we may experience high levels of stress. We also may tend to overthink situations, which might result in depression and anxiety. Situations involving many people may increase our anxiety levels.
    Reduce Your Risk: We may ease our anxiety or depression by finding spaces where our introverted personalities feel relaxed and happy. Perhaps that comfort zone involves a daily walk in a park close to the office, or even creating a cozy room at home in which to relax.

Understanding our personality type might offer helpful insights. By recognizing the associated health impact, we may then take action to reduce our risks. The result? We may benefit both physically and emotionally.

As always, check with your healthcare provider before making any diet or exercise changes. For emotional health challenges, such as depression or anxiety, seek counsel from a mental health professional.

~Here’s to Your Healthy Ascension

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