Tight ties impede blood supply

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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It is not only important to loosen the tie when it is hot: if the male accessories are tightly lashed, they reduce the blood supply to the brain.

Topless is becoming increasingly socially acceptable for men. Even in the bastions of tie straps, such as banks and boardrooms, etiquette is crumbling. A study shows that this trend could also have physiological advantages.

Tie wearers in the MRI

Scientists working with pain researcher Robin Lüddecke from the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein researched how wearing ties affects the blood supply in the brain. To do this, they examined 30 young healthy men in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.

Half were spared a tie, the other half wore a tie with a classic Windsor knot. Then the researchers made three brain scans of each of the participants, each lasting 15 minutes.

With the tie straps, the tie lay loosely around the neck when the first measurement was taken. It was tightened correctly in the second run, then loosened again for the third brain scan.

7.5 percent less blood in the brain

The result: the blood flow in the brain fell by 7.5 percent after the knot was tied in comparison to the initial measurement (average 4.3 ml / min / 100 g). Surprisingly, the effect increased after the knot was loosened again (3.1 ml / min / 100 g). The researchers suspect that the loosening increased the outflow of blood from the brain.

As expected, the blood supply to the brain remained largely constant in the control group with no straps.

Despite the reduced blood flow, the brain supply of all participants was in the normal range at all times, emphasize the researchers. The study cannot answer whether wearing tightly lashed ties reduces the ability to think.

Ties problematic for risk candidates?

However, it is conceivable that in men with arteries that are already narrowed, the problem is exacerbated by ties, according to the researchers. These include smokers, the elderly, or patients with known vascular diseases.

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