HowToPreventHeartDisease.com

If You Do Not Want To Have Heart Disease,
Do not Stress Yourself!

We used to hear from people saying that if you stress yourself too much, illnesses will come to you even if you are a healthy person. Most of us would just ignore the advice especially when our body does not show any unhealthy symptoms. In fact, we should not take the statement for granted because the cardiologists in United States are targeting stress and anxiety as the key factors contributing to cardiovascular diseases.

At the 57th Annual Conference of the American College of Cardiology held on March 30, 2008, researchers from the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation of Massachusetts reported that people who cut their stress level and keep them under control face a 60-percent lower chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke than those constant worriers.

Psychological stress, whether it is depression or anxiety, has been associated with the progression of atherosclerosis, development of atherothrombosis, and increased risk of arrhythmias.

During the three-to-four year study, 516 heart patients were examined. 44 of them suffered non-fatal heart attacks while 19 people died. In comparison to other factors affecting the heart like age, marital status, blood pressure and smoking, the link between anxiety and the number of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks suffered by patients in the study has remained unchanged.

The current study actually followed a report, published in 2007 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, that people with heart conditions living in great anxiety would have a twice higher chance of getting a heart attack or dying when compared with those who live in clam. Both studies have actually indicated cardiovascular mortality is affected by the anticipation or experience of psychological factors and symbolic occasions.

The patients in the current study were divided into 3 groups based on their level of anxiety: high, intermediate and low. Heart conditions in the study included irregular heartbeat, atherosclerosis, and atherothrombosis. Irregular heartbeat is also known as arrhythmia, atherosclerosis refers to the hardening of arteries, and atherothrombosis is blood accumulation leading to clotting.

The questionnaires used in the research asked patients about sleep patterns, their feelings and moods, irregularity in bowel or stomach functions and other stress markers. Besides anxiety, depression, hostility and physical complaints were also measured by the questionnaires.

The findings have concluded that constant stress and anxiety can even affect the rhythm of the heartbeat, heightening the risk of heart disease. As such, the researchers have argued cardiologists should not focus solely on cardiovascular disease. Instead, they should also pay attention to the possible psychological problems that their patients face.

In a separate study by Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, the researchers showed that patients who also have a history of heart attack, family history of sudden death or coronary disease, and cardiovascular risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity or a sedentary lifestyle, would have an even higher chance of getting heart disease.

As indicated in the study, somber events such as anniversary of the death of a family member can lead to heart problems with fatal outcomes, particularly among men. Close family members who just died within hours, weeks, months or years of each other is not uncommon.

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