Not only can stress take its toll on your emotional wellness, but it can also seriously impact your heart health. This is according to three different studies which have recently found that stress can put your wellbeing at risk of heart disease and heart attacks.
Published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, the first study evaluated elderly people’s hair to identify levels of cortisol – the stress hormones. About 300 seniors took part, and the researchers at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, found that those with elevated cortisol levels over a period of time were more likely to be at risk for cardiovascular disease.
Study co-author Laura Manenschijn, MD, said in a press release, ‘Because scalp hair can capture information about how cortisol levels have changed over time, hair analysis gives us a better tool for evaluating that risk.’ Study coauthor Elisabeth van Rossum, MD, PhD, also noted, ‘The data showed a clear link between chronically elevated cortisol levels and cardiovascular disease.’
According to another recent study, this time published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, your risk for stress-related heart attack when you’re an unemployed middle-aged to elderly person increases further with each subsequent job loss. John Higgins, MD, a sports cardiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Centre in Houston, explained, ‘In a very stressful situation [like unemployment], you can actually get a severe release of adrenaline and sympathetic nerve discharges that cause the heart to beat irregularly.
Kavitha Chinnaiyan, MD, director of cardiac imaging at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, added, ‘Most of us know the common risk factors for heart disease, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and genetics, but about 25 to 35% of heart disease remains unexplained. Psychosocial factors likely play a role in these unexplained cases. More and more studies have been looking at stress, anger, sudden stress and major life changes like losing a job, and all of these can have a major effect on cardiovascular events.’
Finally, researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine, New York Medical College, and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, published a study in Medical Hypotheses, in which it was found that stress-managing yoga helped atrial fibrillation patients maintain their health and stay on treatment. Lead study author Chris Streeter, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at BUSM and Boston Medical Centre, commented, ‘Western and Eastern medicine complement one another. Yoga is known to improve stress-related nervous system imbalances.’