How is stress related to heart disease? For many years it was a well-known fact that people leading stressful lives are atrisk of heart ailment. Whether or not this knowledge has any basis is a matter of conjecture. If stress is the root cause of heart disease then probing the types of stress leading to increased risk of heart disease and what can be done about it are questions that need answers. Apparently, there are three aspects that have come in the way of analyzing how stress can affect the human heart and they are • • •
the meaning of stress differ from person to person some stress factors may seem to affect the heart more than others and the response to stress could be of greater importance than the stress in itself.
In recent times there has been a lot of interest shown by the populace in terms of the relationship between heart disease and stress. This article aims at providing relevant information in this regard. What does it mean when people say heart disease is caused by stress? When people say they are stressed out, it could either mean that they are stressed out physically or emotionally. Medical scientists writing in the context of heart disease and stress more often than not mean physical stress. Stress usually means emotional stress in relation to the heart.
Physical Stress Physical stress essentially is workout or any other type of manual exertion that could cause the heart muscles to overwork. This type of physical stress is usually thought to of as being good. As a matter of fact, when physical stress is lacking and the lifestyle of a person is sedentary, in other words, the person is a couch potato then a person is at-risk of coronary artery disease. However, those who are already with a heart condition, for them excessive physical stress could put the person at-risk. A person with coronary artery disease, intense workouts would be stressful for the heart leading to ischemia, in other words there would be a lack of oxygen in the heart. Ischemia of the heart muscle could lead to angina or chest pain, or what is commonly known as a heart attack as a result of a malfunctioning cardiac muscle as diagnosed by professional cardiologists. The crux of the matter is that physical stress or workout is usually recommended but precautions have to be taken if a person is suffering from heart disease. If workout is kept within limit and if a person does not overdo, physical stress would not actually lead to heart disease. Emotional Stress Emotional stress is usually the type of stress that people can relate to when they are of the opinion that this type of stress is the root cause of heart disease. Often we hear comments about the cause of death of a spouse for example, presumed as being mental torture. The question though is whether it’s actually true. A husband could be drinking, gambling and not return home at night but could his lifestyle be the cause of death of the wife? Everybody, doctors included believe that severe and chronic emotional stress is detrimental. There are many who believe that this type of stress could be the reason behind heart ailment. From scientific viewpoint, there isn’t any evidence to suggest that this type of stress is in fact related to heart disease. Nowadays there is sufficient evidence that suggests that there are some people who seem to be easily stressed out because of circumstances which could be the reason behind their high stress levels leading to chronic heart disease. Even minimal stress could be the reason behind cardiac issues to exacerbate.