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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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How Is Stress Linked To Heart Disease? Anything, like a physical or emotional change or a change in the environment, that can pose a challenge or a threat to a person is a stress. Things which can create stress, for instance, death of a friend or loved one, work overload, starting a new job, unemployment or financial concerns, are called stressors. Everyone feels stress and react in different ways. Some can forget the bad happenings quickly but many simply cannot. While there is no direct link between stress and heart disease, according to the American Heart Association, chronic stress can negatively affect the health and can cause issues leading to heart disease. Rising blood pressure, faster breathing, tense muscle, higher heart rate (pulse) or inability to sleep, may occur when people are stressed. These response stems from the hormone adrenaline. The hormone, also known as epinephrine or fight or flight hormone, is a crucial part of the body's fight-or-flight response. Adrenaline also gives one a surge of energy to run away from a dangerous situation, and focus the attention. Over exposure to this hormone may, however, be bad to the health. Stress can also trigger the release of another hormone called cortisol, or commonly known as stress hormone. If one remains in a state of stress for a prolonged period, there will a change in the health conditions. Studies suggest that the high levels of cortisol from long-term stress not only cause weight gain but also lead to increase blood cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure. These are common risk factors for heart disease.
People experiencing chronic stress tend to develop a habit of overeating. As such, higher insulin levels might result causing the blood sugar to drop. This will make one to crave sugary and fatty foods. Too much cortisol can also slow down the metabolism. All these leads to weight gain. Besides overeating, people with a stressful life might adopt poor habits like smoking or indulging in alcohol, which are risk factors for heart disease. Studies indicate that acute stress could trigger reduced blood flow to the heart, cause the heart to beat irregularly and raise the likelihood of blood clotting. These can in turn trigger the development of heart disease. Meanwhile, other research has shown that the amygdala is more active in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression. The amygdala is an almond shaped mass of nuclei (mass of cells) located deep within the temporal lobes of the brain. It plays a key role in the processing of emotions. In a study, 293 patients were given a combined PET/CT scan to record their brain, bone marrow and spleen activity and inflammation of their arteries to see if they developed cardiovascular disease. During the tracking period of an average of 3.7 years, 22 patients had cardiovascular events including heart attack, angina, heart failure, stroke and peripheral arterial disease. Those with higher amygdala activity had a greater risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease and developed problems sooner than those with lower activity. Heightened activity in the amygdala was found to be linked to increased bone marrow activity and inflammation in the arteries that may raise cardiovascular risk. The researchers suggested that the amygdala signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells causing arteries to develop plaques and become inflamed that can lead to heart attack and stroke. During the past few years, physicians recognize another form of heart attack, called stress cardiomyopathy. It does not involve rupturing plaques or blocked blood vessels, and is caused by sudden emotional stress like the death of a child. It is also called broken-heart syndrome. Compared with people who had experienced a typical heart attack, patients with stress cardiomyopathy were almost twice as likely to have a neurological or psychiatric disorder. While stress cardiomyopathy is believed to be less serious or harmful than other forms of heart attack, the rates of death in the hospital between stress cardiomyopathy and traditional heart attacks were similar.
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