Meyer Friedman
Encyclopedia
Meyer Friedman was an American
cardiologist
who developed, with colleague R.H. Rosenman, the theory that the "Type A
" behavior of chronically angry and impatient people raises their risk of heart attacks
. The cardiologist and researcher worked until his death at 90 as director of a medical institute that bears his name.
levels rose under the stress
of tax season. "In March, their cholesterol shot up," said Dr. Gerald W. Friedland, a Stanford University
professor emeritus
of radiology
who collaborated with Friedman on "Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries," a 1998 book.
and Johns Hopkins Medical School. In the Army he was dubbed "Cannonball," for the way he charged down hallways to see patients, "as if they would evaporate before I got there." If people didn't talk fast enough, he'd break in with "Yup, yup, come to the point."
Much later he would observe that such frantic drive is not always the hallmark of a successful person. "Type A personalities who succeed do so in spite of their impatience and hostility," he said, listing among the more notable Type Bs Winston Churchill
, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford
and Jimmy Carter
. In his own case, formulating the theory of Type A behavior was just one of many achievements. Friedman contributed important discoveries in the study of gout
and cholesterol and helped develop the angiogram
.
Friedman suffered an angina attack in 1955 when he was 45 and had the first of two heart attacks 10 years later at 55. As a result of this, Friedman attempted to alter his own type A personality to reduce stress.
psychologist Carl E. Thoresen
and others in the Recurrent Coronary Prevention Project, which followed 1013 heart attack
survivors for 4.5 years to determine effects from altering their coronary-prone (type A
) behavior patterns. Results indicated that behavioral counseling reduced rates of recurrence to 13% (from 21% or higher). After the first year, those receiving behavioral counseling also experienced significantly lower rates of death. The study showed, "for the first time, within a controlled experimental design, that altering type A
behavior reduces cardiac morbidity and mortality in post infarction patients" (p. 653).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cardiologist
Cardiology
Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...
who developed, with colleague R.H. Rosenman, the theory that the "Type A
Type A personality
Originally published in the 1950s, the Type A and Type B personality theory is a theory which describes two common, contrasting personality types—the high-strung Type A and the easy-going Type B—as patterns of behavior that could either raise or lower, respectively, one's chances of developing...
" behavior of chronically angry and impatient people raises their risk of heart attacks
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
. The cardiologist and researcher worked until his death at 90 as director of a medical institute that bears his name.
Biography
Friedman died in 2001 after a short illness at UC San Francisco Medical Center and was survived by a daughter, Joyce Libeu, of Rohnert Park, California; two sons, Joseph, of Mill Valley, California and Mark, of Rohnert Park; and five grandchildren.Work
Friedman, who often characterized himself as a "recovering Type A," and colleague Dr. Ray Rosenman began to write about the link between behavior and heart disease in scientific papers during the 1950s. They turned their observations into a popular 1974 book, "Type A Behavior and Your Heart." "Type A personality" soon became part of the national vocabulary, shorthand for the sort of driven individual who feels oppressed by time. This is the person who honks and fumes in traffic, barks at sluggish salesclerks, and feels compelled to do several things at once—perhaps shave while paying bills and dialing a phone. The work of Friedman and Rosenman opened up a new field of inquiry into the mind-heart connection, still debated and investigated today. Friedman "put the whole issue on the map and generated a lot of research around it. He was groundbreaking in that sense," said Dr. Stephen Fortmann, a Stanford University professor who directs its Center for Research in Disease Prevention. Friedman and Rosenman shared a cardiology practice in San Francisco in the 1950s, when they began to question the conventional thinking about the major risk factors in heart disease. The classic risk factors, such as diet and cholesterol, "could not explain the relative epidemic of coronary disease in Western countries," said Rosenman, now dead, "because [diet] really hadn't changed. Nor had cholesterol."Observation of chairs
Then, there was the furniture. In the waiting room of the practice the two doctors ran, the chairs badly needed reupholstering. What was unusual was that the chairs were worn down on the front edges of the seats and armrests instead of on the back areas, which would have been more typical. The doctors later observed that those chairs were chosen by coronary patients, who tended to sit on the edge of the seat and leaped up frequently, usually to ask how much longer they would have to wait for their appointments to begin. They were as tense as racehorses at the gate. And they had heart problems. Was there a link? After some initial observations, the doctors hypothesized that there was a connection. Friedman began some studies. In one, he observed 40 accountants, to see if their cholesterolCholesterol
Cholesterol is a complex isoprenoid. Specifically, it is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes...
levels rose under the stress
Stress (medicine)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
of tax season. "In March, their cholesterol shot up," said Dr. Gerald W. Friedland, a Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
professor emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
of radiology
Radiology
Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...
who collaborated with Friedman on "Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries," a 1998 book.
Reaction
Other doctors reacted skeptically to Type A theory. "A lot of physicians, particularly cardiologists, are severe Type A's," said Rosenman, who rates himself a "Type A-minus." But the concept was gradually embraced in the popular culture, where "Type A personality" became a buzzword—one that irritated its authors. "You can't change personalities," Friedman often said. "We just try for more B-like behavior." Over the ensuing decades, Friedman would casually diagnose public figures as Type A or B from photographs, spotting such telltale signs as a clenched jaw or pinched look between the eyes. Lyndon Johnson was Type A; Ronald Reagan is B. Friedman developed a therapy regimen to modify Type A behavior. In the 1980s, he led a study that showed that heart attack risks could be dramatically lowered when Type A sufferers learned, essentially, to slow down and chill out (see details, below, in Research section). He wrote a 1984 book based on those findings, Treating Type A Behavior and Your Heart, that showed how those in the treatment group had new heart attacks at about half the rate of those in the control group. It included a chapter on women, whom he found were not immune to the syndrome.Treatment of Type A
In treatment programs, Friedman used a series of exercises to teach Type A's to emulate the mellower, more thoughtful behavior of people with Type B personality. He would ask them to leave their watches home for a day, to drive in the slow lane, to pick the longest line in the grocery store, and consciously to observe and talk to other people. To force Type A's to slow down, he prescribed reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past--all seven volumes. "He encouraged people to read any and all of the classics. He saw it as a way for people to re-energize or strengthen their right brain"--the creative side--"which he felt atrophied in people with Type A behavior," said Dr. Barton Sparagon, medical director of the Meyer Friedman Institute at San Francisco's Mount Zion Medical Center. Other sessions concentrated just on smiling because Type A's more typically wore a hostile grimace. "Sweetness is not weakness," Friedman would often tell his patients. When he encountered resistance, he quoted Hamlet: "Assume the virtue even if you have it not . . . for its use almost can change the stamp of nature."Friedman as Type A personality
The early Friedman was classic Type A. Even before he finished junior high school he chose Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Johns Hopkins Medical School. In the Army he was dubbed "Cannonball," for the way he charged down hallways to see patients, "as if they would evaporate before I got there." If people didn't talk fast enough, he'd break in with "Yup, yup, come to the point."
Much later he would observe that such frantic drive is not always the hallmark of a successful person. "Type A personalities who succeed do so in spite of their impatience and hostility," he said, listing among the more notable Type Bs Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
and Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
. In his own case, formulating the theory of Type A behavior was just one of many achievements. Friedman contributed important discoveries in the study of gout
Gout
Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...
and cholesterol and helped develop the angiogram
Angiogram
Angiography or arteriography is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the inside, or lumen, of blood vessels and organs of the body, with particular interest in the arteries, veins and the heart chambers...
.
Friedman suffered an angina attack in 1955 when he was 45 and had the first of two heart attacks 10 years later at 55. As a result of this, Friedman attempted to alter his own type A personality to reduce stress.
Research
Beginning in the 1970s, Friedman collaborated with Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
psychologist Carl E. Thoresen
Carl E. Thoresen
Carl E. Thoresen is a psychologist on the faculty of Stanford University. Since 2005, he has also been a Senior Fellow at Santa Clara University.- Education and academic career :...
and others in the Recurrent Coronary Prevention Project, which followed 1013 heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
survivors for 4.5 years to determine effects from altering their coronary-prone (type A
Type A personality
Originally published in the 1950s, the Type A and Type B personality theory is a theory which describes two common, contrasting personality types—the high-strung Type A and the easy-going Type B—as patterns of behavior that could either raise or lower, respectively, one's chances of developing...
) behavior patterns. Results indicated that behavioral counseling reduced rates of recurrence to 13% (from 21% or higher). After the first year, those receiving behavioral counseling also experienced significantly lower rates of death. The study showed, "for the first time, within a controlled experimental design, that altering type A
Type A personality
Originally published in the 1950s, the Type A and Type B personality theory is a theory which describes two common, contrasting personality types—the high-strung Type A and the easy-going Type B—as patterns of behavior that could either raise or lower, respectively, one's chances of developing...
behavior reduces cardiac morbidity and mortality in post infarction patients" (p. 653).