witnesstherevolution

Earlier today I conducted a semi-scientific experiment out of curiosity and also to prove a point. Like many people, I have read the Twilight "saga". And like some people, I have extensive issues with this poor excuse for literature. My dislike of the books caused me to sign up as a member on the website www.twilightsucks.com. I discuss the books in their forums with other people who have similar issues as myself. On average I spend about half an hour a day on the site, though I have been known to spend up to 2 hours on there when Im bored.

Recently (over the past few months) I noticed Ive been experiencing more headaches than I normally do, as well as increasingly irritable and intolerant behaviour. Not a huge amount more, but definitely more. This could be due to many things, but even more recently (last week) I eventually realised that the headaches and bad moods were loosely correlating with the time I spent reading passages of and discussing the Twilight "saga" online.

I'd like to mention at this point that this experiment is entirely personal. I am in no way suggesting that this is what happens to everyone or what will happen to you if you decide to read the Twilight books or pay a visit to the forums of TS.com. This is only my individual experience.

Now I know Im not the only one who will say that the Twilight phenomenon makes them angry. For such an appalling, anti-feminist, badly written piece of garbage to be so popular and globally acclaimed paints a worrying picture of society today. Its no wonder that such thoughts can make a person angry. And certainly I can vouch for the fact that the anti-Twilight discussion forums contain a lot of anger as well as well structured, sensible arguments against the books.

However I also happen to be a second year student of Biomedical Sciences and it occured to me that my anger at Twilight and my headaches and moods were probably connected. In fact, once the idea came into my head, it seemed so obvious.

Hypertension (more commonly known as high blood pressure) is the condition in which a person's blood pressure is consistently above a certain level. In the UK that level is 140/90 (140 over 90). The average normal adult blood pressure is 120/80. Somebody with a blood pressure that is raised above this level for a sustained period of time is diagnosed as suffering from 'high blood pressure', or hypertension. Generally hypertension has no obvious symptoms, but people can suffer from headaches and, in more severe cases, problems with vision, fits and even blackouts. Severe, long term hypertension can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and permanent damage to vision.

Thankfully I can say I have experienced nothing more than a few headaches and I seriously doubt that it would ever lead on to the more serious symptoms and consequences of hypertension. But I did want to find out if the cause of my headaches was linked to my blood pressure becoming raised due to the anger I felt when reading/discussing Twilight. So I designed a very simple experiment in attempt to test this.
First I would measure my blood pressure at rest, when I was completely relaxed. Then I would read a section of Twilight for half an hour, undisturbed, with no distractions and as little physical movement as possible (to try and keep the experiment accurate and fair). Afterwards I would measure my blood pressure again to see if it was in any way raised.

My preparation for the experiment was simple: do absolutely nothing out of the ordinary to make me stressed in any way. I went grocery shopping, watched some TV, ate lunch and had a shower. Then, using a sphygmomanometer (device for measuring blood pressure), I noted my initial blood pressure: 115/62. Although slightly low, this is well within the normal range.

Laying on my bed I opened my copy of Twilight at random and flicked to the beginning of that chapter. It was chapter 18, in which the vampires Laurent, James and Victoria interupt the Cullens baseball game and James (a tracker) becomes fixated on Bella. In my allocated half an hour I read all of chapters 18 and 19, ending where Alice, Jasper and Bella go on the run from James and Victoria.

After the half an hour I took my blood pressure again: 132/85. I also, on impulse, took my heart rate: 93 beats per minute (average heart rate is 60-100 bpm, depending on age and physical fitness). Compared to my normal, that heart rate is noticeably high. And, as you can see, my blood pressure was also higher than at rest. Although technically 132/85 is still considered normal, it is obviously raised compared to my resting blood pressure and it is getting close to the level that, exceeding it, would indicate medical hypertension.

Obviously this is only one, very small, experiment and it in no way proves conclusively that my headaches are due to high blood pressure or that it is indeed anger at Twilight that causes my high blood pressure in the first place.
Unfortunately I have neither the time, nor the resources to further investigate my theory, but I hope you can at least agree that there is enough evidence here to support the hypothesis that Twilight can indeed be bad for your health.