It’s another study that illustrates the link between a person’s mind and heart health, said cardiologist Glenn Levine, a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who did not participate in the study.
In developing the AHA statement, “we examined all the data we could find and we concluded that negative psychological health factors, such as stress, were clearly associated with many cardiovascular risk factors, ”Levine said.
The good news, Levine said, is that because the mind, heart, and body are interconnected and interdependent, a person can also improve their cardiovascular health by striving for a positive psychological outlook.
“You can decide to change your mindset about this stressful situation or set boundaries, just keeping in mind that you can prevent stress from being toxic to you,” said Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, editor of the journal Contentment, an expert in controlling stress. the American Institute of Stress.
“We should not rule out our ability to play a role in our well-being,” said Ackrill, who did not participate in the study.
Greater impact on younger people
The new study followed 412 multiracial adults between the ages of 48 and 87 with normal blood pressure, measuring urine levels of stress hormones at various times from 2005 to 2018. The hormone levels were then compared. with cardiovascular events that could occur, such as high blood pressure, heart pain, heart attacks, and bypass surgery.
“Previous research has focused on the relationship between stress hormone levels and hypertension or cardiovascular events in patients with existing hypertension. However, studies on adults without hypertension were lacking,” the author said. of the study, Dr. Kosuke Inoue, assistant professor of social epidemiology at Kyoto University in Japan, in a statement.
The study tested three hormones (norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine) that regulate the autonomic nervous system and control involuntary body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration.
Inoue and his team also examined levels of cortisol, a steroid hormone that the body releases in reaction to acute stress as danger. Once the danger is over, the body reduces cortisol production, but yes a person is Continuously stressed, cortisol levels can remain high.
“Norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine and cortisol can increase with stress caused by life events, work, relationships, finances and more,” Inoue said.
The study found that twice the levels of cortisol alone, but not norepinephrine, epinephrine or dopamine, was associated with a 90% higher risk of suffering a cardiovascular event.
Each time the combined levels of the four stress hormones were doubled, the risk of developing high blood pressure increased by 21% to 31%. The effect was most pronounced in people under 60, a worrying finding, according to researchers.
“In this context, our findings generate a hypothesis that stress hormones play a critical role in the pathogenesis of hypertension among the younger population,” they wrote.
The authors noted that the study had limitations, including the lack of a control group and the use of a single measure (urine analysis) to test stress hormones.
Still, examining urinary measurements of stress hormones over time is “orderly and new,” Levine said. “It’s a somewhat objective way, as we can best say with imperfect tools, of classifying people who are probably more stressed, over time.”
What to do?
Wait a minute, you say. I want to know if I’m stressed, but I can’t stay without doing a urine test. How do I know if I am at risk for heart problems due to higher levels of stress hormones?
“While we obviously don’t all know what our urine cortisol levels are, there are ways to learn to self-reflect on whether we can have some negative psychological factors, especially things like stress,” he said. Levine.
“If we recognize that we tend to be stressed, frustrated, or angry often, it’s helpful to ask ourselves exactly what things are leading us to stress,” he added. “Once we do, we can sit down and decide very carefully, is it worth letting these things make me stressed or frustrated?”
Ackrill, becoming aware of what triggers stress allows you to stop these automatic hormonal responses before they trigger the circulatory system.
“The mechanism of stress is that we work on something, so our sympathetic nervous system reviews everything. We need the heart to pump quickly to keep blood pressure high so that we have good circulation and we can get away from danger, ”she said.
“You want to intervene earlier, when you’re just starting to mount your stress response, with a deep breath or other relaxation response,” Ackrill added.
This will allow it your top executive brain to get you started, giving you options on how to handle the situation.
“We often let our minds react quickly to something before we really have time to allow our highest levels of cognitive functioning, our prefrontal cortex, to weigh in,” Levine said. “We want to pause, reflect and digest this and take a few seconds to decide what the most skillful way to react is.”