Do you sweat the small stuff, see the glass as half empty, have trouble making friends, and keep your feelings bottled up inside? That combination could be particularly hard on your heart.

For more than a decade, researchers in the Netherlands have been looking into a connection between what they call type D personality and different aspects of heart disease. If their findings hold up elsewhere, type D could prove to be a significant contributor to heart disease. Then again, if the hoopla around Type A personality was any indication, it could end up on the s**** heap of faded ideas.

The D stands for distressed, says psychologist Johan Denollet, of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, who has led research in this area. Type D people tend to be anxious, irritable, and insecure. They keep an eye out for trouble rather than pleasure. They want to be liked by others - don't we all?