Most Star Wars fans know that the dark side of the force has a negative effect on the user’s body (ok, I’ll admit right now that I’m probably in the camp of those who believe "all I really need to know I learned from Star Wars")

"Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they." Yoda

Interestingly, research out of Duke University Medical Center suggests that men who are hostile and are prone to experience frequent and intense feelings of anger, and depression show activation of the complement system and increased levels of C3.

This pattern of inflammation in your body is "bad" and strongly associated with cardiovascular disease (strokes and heart attacks- both of which play a very large role in determining brain health).

The article was published in the February issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Click here for the abstract.

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In an earlier post, I mentioned how a large amount of new research shows that chronic stress plays a major role in destroying the memory engine (hippocampus) of your brain.

Additionally, I’ve also pointed out how many studies now implicate stress as playing a major role in:

• Diabetes
• Atherosclerosis (which leads to heart attacks and strokes)
• Cancer

Now new studies suggest it actually causes premature aging of your immune system. From a recent article in Forbes:

Research suggests that stress can shorten the chunks of DNA at the tips of chromosomes in cells, making it harder for them to work properly, according to the Elissa Epel, a psychologist at the University of California at San Francisco. The bits of DNA “are like the plastic caps on the ends of our shoelaces. They prevent the ends from fraying,” she said.

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High Blood pressure is enemy #1 of the brain. It ravages the small blood vessels that feed brain tissue, and over time leads to many little holes in the brain (technically known as infarcts or strokes).

In our quest to be ever more productive at work, we put in longer and longer hours. In doing so, however, we may be setting our brains up for long-term failure:

According to a new study out of the University of California in Irvine, the more hours you put in at work, the more likely you are to have high blood pressure. Those working more than 51 hours a week were 29 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than those working 11 to 39 hours a week.

“American workers now work longer hours than workers in any other industrial country in the world — including Japan,” Dean Baker, one of the study authors said.

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