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Chronic Stress Can Lead to a Heart Attack
One of most frequent questions patients ask when at the doctor’s office is whether or not a heart attack has anything to do with the level of chronic stressthey are going through or the way they take things. But what do they exactly mean by stress and what are its consequences?What is stress and how important is it?
About 70 years ago, Dr. Selye defined stress as a particular and non specific response of our body when faced with a stimulus, meaning a situation that is perceived as overwhelming. Such a stimulus can be physical, mental or emotional; internal or external.
Constant hormonal and nervous changes happen in our body as a result of our daily activities. In fact, without those changes our organs will not be able to perform any activity. However, the way we respond to an external stimulus, as hostile, overwhelming or threatening, will determine whether or not we feel stressed.
How does our organism react? Our response to stressful situations changes the equilibrium of our organism, causing abnormal reactions that can bring about discomfort as well as biological alterations. All these symptoms alter the mechanisms in our different internal organs.
To respond to stress, our body releases several hormones, mainly adrenaline and epinephrine, and activates the nervous system that regulates the activity of the internal organs. This passive nervous system, over which we have no control, along with adrenaline, puts the heart and the arteries to work, increasing blood pressure and cardiac frequency. Stress also produces a psychological response in some patients; most common responses are anxiety and depression.
Stress and heart attack relationship Most recent studies suggest that there is an important relationship between a heart attack and stress, whether it happens at work, at home, or as a result of a financial crisis.
INTERHEART is the name of a global study led by McMaster University's. The study involved 15,000 patients with a first acute myocardial infarction and 15,000 individuals without cardiovascular disease symtoms (control group) drawn from 262 centres in 52 countries throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and North and South America. The findings of this study on the relationship between stress and a heart attack are as follows:
At work: Stress was found to be 38% higher in individuals who had suffered a heart attack than in individuals in the control group; the stress lasted for more than double the time in persons with heart attacks than people in the control group.
At home: Stress was found to be 52% higher in patients who had suffered a heart attack than those individuals in the control group; the stress lasted for more than double the time in people who had suffered a heart attack than in the control group.
Financial: Stress caused by financial hardship was found to be 33% higher in patients with a heart attack than in those in the control group.Other events that generally cause stressful situations and which are related to heart attacks are:
Taking care of people with a chronic disease
Family conflicts
Loss of a job
Death of the spouse
Domestic violence.
To sum up, stress, as an exaggerated response to a situation considered hostile, can be a factor that in some individuals, especially those with an A type personality, presents a strong connection with cardiovascular disease such as a heart attack.
Different Personalities According to their personality profile, people are grouped in four different categories:
Type A personality Individuals in this group are hyperactive, irritable, ambitious, aggressive, hostile, impulsive, chronic inpatients, tense and competitive. Their personal relationships are problematic and with a tendency to dominate.
Type B personality In general they are calm, trusting, and relaxed individuals, open to emotions, including hostile ones.
Type C personality These individuals are introverted, obsessive, who keep their response to stress to themselves. They are passive, resigned and even-tempered; they like to cooperate, submissive and conformists, always controlling their hostile expressions and eager for social approval.
Type D personality These individuals usually experience an array of negative emotions that they inhibit; they avoid social interactions.
A tendency On 1959 Friedman and Rosenman observed that individuals with type A personality are more prone to suffer heart disease than the rest of the groups. The reason is that the release of adrenaline and epinephrine are generally accompanied by internal disorders such as:
An increase of LDL cholesterol, the bad one
A reduction of HDL cholesterol, the good one
An increase of blood pressure
The activation of platelets, cells that promote blood clots inside the arteries.
However, what is associated with a heart attack, even more than the personality, is the tendency to react with anger and hostility. Patients with a D personality have also an increased risk of suffering from coronary disease. Individuals with a B personality are more associated with neurotic episodes and depression.
People of the C type are associated with rheumatoid and dermatological disorders, infections, allergies and a high predisposition to cancer given the inhibition of the immune system that these people present.
Final thoughts No question about it, chronic stress is a factor that can lead to a heart attack. Read the article again and see where you are at. If you control some of the risk factors for heart disease such as high cholesterol, hypertension and blood glucose, looking at how you perceive the stress around you can be a major step to prevent a heart attack.
To learn the ins-and-outs of the Authentic Mediterranean Diet and the Mediterranean Cuisine, check out my book; I wrote it explicitly to help you apply these Mediterranean principles into your life and those of your loved ones.
Have a great and peaceful day while looking after your heart; after all, it is the one that keeps you going.
they are going through or the way they take things. But what do they exactly mean by stress and what are its consequences?
INTERHEART is the name of a global study led by McMaster University's. The study involved 15,000 patients with a first acute myocardial infarction and 15,000 individuals without cardiovascular disease symtoms (control group) drawn from 262 centres in 52 countries throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and North and South America. The findings of this study on the relationship between stress and a heart attack are as follows:
