What’s in a name? Quite a lot apparently. According to a recent study men with certain names are more likely to end up heart problems, diabetes or other diseases. Sounds incredible? It’s not the first time recently, that I have been confronted by research aiming to show that names affect our personalities and lives in sometimes dire ways.
So if your husband is named Brian, Colin or Alan then according to the survey conducted using data from the last 80 years, they have a 47 per cent chance of having high blood pressure. Men called Simon, Mark or Kevin only have a 16 per cent chance, while men called Daniel, Liam and Thomas have a 6 per cent chance of having high blood pressure.
The study also found men called Brian and Colin, are more likely to suffer a stroke. Sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? But if your husband is a Colin or Brian, you might want to at least take precautionary measures by getting their blood pressure checked more often, reducing salt intake in their diet, making sure they exercise,reducing stress in their lives and doing anything to keep blood pressure down and lessen the risk of serious problems.
The same analysis also discovered certain female names most likely to put women at increased risk of cardiovascular health problems. Some of these names like Margaret, Ann or Linda, names popular in the thirties, forties and fifties will put you into this category the experts claim while those called Emily, Chloe or Sophie only have a risk of 1 per cent of having high blood pressure. Ann and Margaret are the names of those more likely to suffer a stroke.
Now, I admit I’m somewhat skeptical of the findings but even so, why take the risk? Maybe you can’t change your name or that of your spouse, but you can make sure that you are both eating a healthy diet, making sure you and your spouse get enough exercise, eliminate stress as much as possible and get regular checkups. Maybe in the long run that’s more use than worrying about names of you and your spouse, what do you think?
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