How does Stress level Affect Overall Risk of Getting Heart Disease?
The times we live in are happening and moving at a rather fast pace. Stress is a part of everyone’s life nowadays. It’s a norm to be suffering from it. But have you considered the effects that it can have on your health? People usually are under the impression that it doesn’t take a toll on your health and they couldn’t be more wrong.
Stress can be the result of everyday life pressures or perhaps a major life change even. It can be emotional or physical and can have many forms. Some amount of stress might be actually a good motivator in situations and may keep you alert but not being able to manage it or suffering from chronic stress could lead to many diseases.
It might not be the same for everyone. Everyone deals with stress in different ways. What may seem normal to you could be stressing someone out and vice versa. Therefore, stress affects people in different ways. Emotional or mental trauma resulting from a failure of any kind; loss of a loved one, financial troubles, personal relationships not working out, lack of sleep, falling grades, etc. are common stressors.
Even though scientists are still researching the direct link that stress has on your heart, one thing is for sure that it can be a contributing factor to cardiovascular diseases. The right way to put it would be that it affects factors which in turn increase the risk of heart disease.
So how exactly does stress affect those factors?
Well, your body’s response to stress is to release the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, these may benefit you for a short period of time, but long-term exposure to these hormones may cause elevated levels of blood pressure and cholesterol. Furthermore, according to research, stress can promote the buildup of plaque deposits on your artery which in turn from blood clots in the vessel. Poor blood flow to the muscle is also caused by increased stress levels, and this could, in turn, increase your chances of a stroke.
Some common symptoms of stress include:
- Feelings of anger, anxiety, and depression
- Decreased energy and sleep
- Frequent mood swings
- Aches and pain
- Compulsive eating
- Increased use of drugs such as alcohol
More recently, studies have found psychological stressors to be linked to many heart diseases. People suffering from chronic anxiety are more prone to suffer from heart attack, atrial fibrillation, and sudden heart death. Similarly, people suffering from depression, anxiety, hopelessness, etc. are much more likely to develop heart risks such as obesity, hypertension, and impaired heart rate, leading to heart attack and sudden heart death.
Hard emphasis needs to be given to psychological factors causing stress. These are often brushed under the rug or not given any attention by most people and even some physicians while suspecting heart diseases. People often consider stress a psychological problem and not a physical one and therefore do not give it the attention it needs. Now, we have enough reason to believe that your body and mind go hand in hand and psychological health is as important as physical health. In fact, these two are majorly interlinked.
The good news; however, is that stress is manageable! There is a lot that you can do to make sure your stress levels keep at bay and do not interfere with your health. Let’s discuss a few strategies on how to manage your stress.
Eat well and exercise!
Having a healthy diet surely works wonders for stress. Eating right and keeping your weight in control will benefit you a lot. Not abusing alcohol and food is a major step towards reduced stress levels. Furthermore, exercise is proven to help reduce depression and anxiety and in turn stress.
Surround yourself with people who care
Life comes with its set of ups and downs, and there will be many things that you’ll have to go through in life which cause elevated stress levels. Don’t feel like you have it all on your shoulders! There are people there to help you, and you need to let them. Having a strong support system can majorly reduce your risk of getting a heart disease.
A lack of being able to trust others or trying to deal with everything on your own could lead you to drug abuse and many other unhealthy behaviors like overeating or even under-eating.
Manage work related stress
Stress related to work or financial income is a major cause of many heart diseases. It’s important for us to realize how important our health is over these things. You need to learn how not to overstress yourselves and learn how to manage stress in your work environment.
It could be little things like taking deep breaths and going for a little walk that make a world of difference. You could even consider counseling if none of these tactics works. However, you should not let work-related stress put you at the risk of a heart condition.
Consult a mental health professional
Recently, mental health has been the center of attention and the lack of attention on it is being recognized for the life threat that it is. For way too many years, we have disregarded it and not taken it seriously when considering our illness and it has cost us many lives. However, chronic stress, anxiety, and depression are the leading causes of heart risks.
If you are suffering from any mental health issues, do not be shy to seek treatment for it. You need to realize that it is as important as physical health and there are people out there professionally trained to help you.
All in all, stress can be a major promoter of many heart diseases, but the good part is that it can be treated and managed. It’s important to realize that it differs from person to person. It’s even more important to keep your eyes open to the previously mentioned symptoms of stress for yourself and for your loved ones. Have a healthy heart!
