Study / Do not worry about money and work, stress for them increases the risk of heart attacks

Experts can not conclusively explain the link they have found, or even whether high stress levels are the cause of cardiovascular disease. However, previous studies already suggest that high levels of cortisol from long-term stress may increase blood cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and blood pressure. The risk of cardiovascular disease increases with perceived feelings of stress, financial problems and negative life events, say experts from the University of Gothenburg.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels. It is usually accompanied by an accumulation of fatty deposits within the arteries (atherosclerosis) and an increased risk of blood clots. It can also be associated with damage to arteries in organs such as the brain, heart, kidneys and eyes. All heart disease is cardiovascular disease, but not all cardiovascular disease is heart disease.

“It is not known exactly what increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with severe stress,” said study author Annika Rosengren, a professor of medicine at the University of Gothenburg. “But many different processes in the body, such as atherosclerosis and blood clots, can be affected by stress. “If we want to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease globally, we must consider stress as another modifiable risk factor,” she said.

Cardiovascular disease is the term for all types of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels, including coronary heart disease (blocked arteries), which can cause heart attacks, strokes and more. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death globally, taking about 17.9 million lives each year. This new research was based on data collected between January 2003 and March 2021, obtained from the Prospective Rural Urban Epidemiology (PURE) study. PURE has more than 200,000 participants, but the new research focused on 118,706 individuals with no history of cardiovascular disease.

Individuals were in 21 countries – four high-income countries (including Canada, Sweden and the UAE), 12 middle-income countries (including Brazil, Poland, South Africa) and five low-income countries ( including India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe). Significantly absent among the sample were the major western nations, including Great Britain and the US, and the most populous countries, including China, Russia, and Japan. Participants, men and women, ranged in age from 35 to 70, although 50 years was the average when the study began.

Initially, they were asked questions about perceived stress in the past year, rated on a scale from zero (no stress) to three (severe stress). ‘Stress’ was defined as feeling nervous, nervous or anxious due to factors at work or at home, being in financial difficulty or experiencing difficult events and challenging periods in their lives. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels. CVD events include heart disease and stroke. All heart diseases are cardiovascular diseases, but not all cardiovascular diseases are heart diseases (stock image).

Such events and times included the divorce, unemployment, loss, or serious illness of a family member. Of the participants, 7.3 percent were found to have been subjected to severe stress, 18.4 percent to moderate stress, 29.4 percent to low stress, and 44 percent to no stress. Those who were under severe stress were slightly younger, more often characterized by risk factors such as smoking or abdominal obesity, and more often in high-income countries. Individuals were followed until March 2021, which meant that the average follow-up period was 10 years.

During this time 5934 cardiovascular events were recorded in the form of myocardial infarction, stroke or heart failure. For participants with high stress, the risk of some form of cardiovascular event increased by 22 percent, heart attack by 24 percent, and strokes by 30 percent. A key difference of this new paper, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, is that stress levels are classified before cardiovascular events, according to the team. Previous studies sought to determine stress levels in people who had already suffered a heart attack or stroke, which may have influenced responses.

However, the study could not answer whether stress has a more acute or chronic effect, or whether its effect varies, between country income categories. Other limitations include simple and ‘partly subjective’ questions asked by participants and the fact that many countries around the world are not included in PURE. Several studies have already examined the link between stress and cardiovascular issues – a study published earlier this year found that elevated levels of stress hormones are associated with a higher risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular events. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Hypertension, followed 400 Americans for more than a decade.

“Stress hormones, norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine and cortisol can be increased with stress from life events, work, relationships, finances and more,” said lead author Kosuke Inoue at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. Scientists at Harvard Medical School claimed to directly link anxiety and stress to cardiovascular disease for the first time in 2017.

How can you calm your nerves?
Whether it is the thought of giving a presentation at an important office meeting or getting frustrated in a traffic queue, stress has become an unwanted part of daily life. A simple breathing technique can help calm the nerves in seconds – by ‘tricking’ the body into thinking it is relaxed. The method has a simple rule – exhale for twice the time you inhale.

If you are breathing and counting up to four seconds, then you should exhale slowly and count to eight seconds while doing so. This causes a change in the nervous system from the ‘sympathetic’ way – which is what we associate with war or escape – to the ‘parasympathetic’ – or ‘rest and digestion’.

If someone is stressed, she suggests breathing for two and out for four seconds. Then gradually increase this to suction for eight seconds and exhale for 16 seconds after a little exercise.

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