Contents:
- Medical Video: The Problem with Horror Movies Today
- Horror film in terms of health
- The benefits of watching horror films for health
- 1. Helps burn calories
- 2. As a catharsis
- 3. Increase your immunity
- 4. Good for brain health
- The bad impact of watching a horror movie
- 1. Causes an increased risk of blood clots
- 2. Increases the risk of heart problems in certain individuals
Medical Video: The Problem with Horror Movies Today
Like watching horror movies? Surely what you want when watching a horror movie is fear. If you don't feel this, you may be disappointed after watching it. In terms of entertainment, horror films are indeed you are looking to entertain yourself. However, if viewed from the health side, actually watching a good horror movie or not?
Horror film in terms of health
Quoted from WebMD's website, Glenn Sparks, a communications professor from Purdue University has studied the impact of horror films on the physiology of people who watch it. The result, when you watch a horror movie that happens to your body is that your heart rate increases 15 times per minute, your palms sweat, your body temperature drops a few degrees, your muscles tighten, and your blood pressure increases.
All of this might be a result of the response fight-or-flight, the response that usually occurs when you are stressed. Blood flow to other parts of the body besides the heart and muscles may decrease, so your body temperature decreases and you feel goose bumps when you are afraid to watch a horror movie.
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From this explanation it can be seen that horror films affect your body. When watching a horror movie, your body reacts to the taste that is caused when you watch a horror movie. Then, does this have a good or bad impact on health?
Several studies have been conducted to see the impact of watching horror films for health. Some studies show good results for health, but some do not. For more details, let's look at the following explanation.
The benefits of watching horror films for health
1. Helps burn calories
Did you know that watching a horror movie can help you burn calories? For those of you who are overweight and like to watch horror films, maybe this is good news for you. A study has shown that watching a horror movie can burn calories.
Research conducted by the University of Westminster shows that watching a movie that triggers adrenaline for 90 minutes can burn calories on average 113 calories, this is equivalent to calories burned when you walk for 30 minutes. The more frightening the movie you are watching, the more calories you burn when watching the film.
Other studies that monitor heart rate, oxygen supply, and carbon dioxide output in the film audience involved in the study also showed that the audience's heart rate was observed to increase when watching scary movies and this caused the adrenaline hormone to increase.
Adrenaline hormone can increase the body's metabolic rate, so that the energy stored in your body is faster to burn or use. This makes watching a horror movie can help you lose weight.
2. As a catharsis
When you watch a horror movie, what you expect is a feeling of fear and surprise. According to Mark Griffiths, professor of addiction behavior at Nottingham Trent University, this happens for various reasons. One of them is because you want to find something different that you have never felt in your daily life. In addition, watching horror films is also a catharsis, which is to provide emotional release due to frustration or a hidden feeling.
Yes, when you are stressed about something, you might be looking for an outlet to find your pleasure again. Well, one of them might be found by watching a horror movie, so that your emotions can be released.
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3. Increase your immunity
This might sound a little strange. How can watching a horror movie increase immunity? However, a study has proven it. Research conducted by Coventry University has proven this.
This research was conducted by taking blood samples from participants before, during, and after they watched a horror film. The result is increased white blood cell levels. White blood cells usually increase because of the response to infection.
This was also confirmed by Natalie Riddell, an immunologist at University College London. He said that watching a horror movie can trigger a response fight-or-flight and this can trigger the release of adrenaline, where adrenaline can affect your immune system.
4. Good for brain health
Watching horror films allows your brain to release chemical compounds such as dopamine, serotonin, and glutamate. This can trigger the release of adrenaline which has an anesthetic effect similar to medicine. This is a good thing for your mental health because it can help reduce your stress and anxiety.
The bad impact of watching a horror movie
1. Causes an increased risk of blood clots
Research conducted by Leiden University in 2015 showed that watching horror films can increase the risk of blood clots. This research was conducted by taking blood samples from 24 people before and after watching a horror film. The result is an increase in the production of blood clotting proteins called factor VIII, so the risk of blood clots also increases.
However, watching a horror movie is not related to other blood clotting factors. So, this shows that transient fear can trigger blood clots, but it cannot cause blood clots to form. The researchers added that blood clots in response to fear might occur as a way for the body to anticipate heavy blood loss during dangerous situations.
So, watching a horror movie doesn't really endanger your health. The response to an increase in blood clots seems normal when you feel fear triggered by watching a horror movie.
2. Increases the risk of heart problems in certain individuals
However, horror films might cause someone to die of fear, especially if he already has a history of heart disease before. Fear can cause some people to have a heart attack because of the side effects of the response fight-or-flight. This might have happened.
Fear or stress when watching a horror movie can cause an increase in the production of adrenal hormones. This causes the blood vessels to narrow so that the heart must work harder and faster to pump blood. If someone already has a problem with his heart and experiences fear while watching a horror movie, then an increase in adrenaline can endanger his health.
A cardiologist from the University of Maryland in 2015 also found that watching horror films can cause the endothelium (tissue in the walls of blood vessels) to narrow. This then causes a decrease in blood flow and increased blood pressure. This is also a result of adrenal hormones.
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