New research directly links high stress levels to heart disease

NEW medical research out of the US proves what most of us have always suspected — stress can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

NEW medical research proves what most of us have always suspected — stress can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Harvard Medical School scientists have directly linked anxiety and stress to cardiovascular disease for the first time — and discovered exactly why the two are linked.

In a four-year trial, researchers used MRIs to scan the brains, hearts and bone marrow of nearly 300 patients.

They found those with higher activity in the amygdala region of the brain, the part ­associated with stress, were 59 per cent more likely over the next 3.7 years to develop heart failure or angina or suffer a heart attack or stroke.

Examination of the scans showed people with an overactive amygdala also had more clotting in the aorta — the main artery to the heart.

Stress, istock.

Cardiovascular prevention expert Associate Professor Thomas Buckley from the University of Sydney’s Nursing School said the findings were a small but significant step in understanding the link between psychological and physical factors in heart disease.

“This study put two bits of the puzzle together, by objectively measuring brain activity and other biological factors,” Prof Buckley said.

“There’s clearly more work to be done but it’s a significant step in our understanding of how chronic or acute stress can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.”

Other experts said the findings suggested doctors should start treating people with chronic stress as being at risk of heart attacks.

Reducing stress may have benefits beyond increased psychological well-being.

“Our results provide a unique insight into how stress may lead to cardiovascular disease,” lead author of the study, Dr Ahmed Tawakol, said.

“This raises the possibility that reducing stress could produce benefits that extend beyond an improved sense of psychological wellbeing.”

The study, published in the Lancet, has attracted international attention.

Dr Ilze Bot of Leiden University in the Netherlands said more and more people experienced daily psychosocial stress. “Identifying chronic stress as a true risk factor for acute cardiovascular syndromes … could be included in risk assessments of cardiovascular disease in daily clinical practice,” she said.

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