Men working in offices commonly use neckties but findings of a new study suggest that wearing ties may actually hamper work performance and limit creativity.
Wearing Tie May Hamper Creative Abilities
In a new study published in the journal Neuroradiology on June 30, researchers found evidence suggesting that wearing the popular men's accessory may hamper a person's creative abilities.
Wearing a tie squeezes the neck veins, which limits the blood flow and potentially slow down the processing of the brain limiting a person's thinking skills.
Study researcher Robin Lüddecke, from University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, and colleagues recruited 30 men for the study, half of whom were asked to wear ties.
After scanning the brains of the participants, the researchers found that the ties squeezed the veins where the blood passes through to reach the brain, cutting off circulation by 7.5 percent. The percentage is sizable enough to make a fatal difference for those who have high blood pressure.
"The examination resulted in a statistically significant decrease of cerebral blood flow after tightening the necktie (p < 0.001) while the venous flow did not show any significant changes," the researchers wrote in their study. "It appears that wearing a necktie leads to a reduction in CBF."
Tight Ties, Glaucoma, And Blindness
This is not the first time a potential health hazard is associated with wearing ties. An earlier study also showed that wearing the tie too tight may increase a person's risk of blindness.
In a 2003 study published in the Journal of Ophthalmology, researchers measured the fluid in the eyeball of men before and after they wore their tie. They found that this increases intraocular pressure, or the fluid pressure inside the eye, which is associated with glaucoma.
Glaucoma, one of the top causes of irreversible blindness, occurs when increases in pressure cause damage to the eye. Experts said that ties possibly cause the problem because wearing them constricts the jugular vein, the main blood vessels that return blood from the head toward the heart.
The researchers said that the findings suggest an association between wearing tight neckties regularly and eye problem.
"If the patient consistently were to wear a tight necktie as a normal preference in daily life, this could lead to a sustained increase in IOP and could predispose to the development of glaucomatous optic neuropathy, thereby rendering a tight necktie a risk factor as well as a confounder of accurate IOP measurement," the researchers wrote in their study.
