What Stress Does to the Heart
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. Every year, 735,000 Americans have a heart attack—525,000 for the first time. One-third of people who suffer a heart attack do not survive.Stress to the Heart
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a narrowing of the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle. According to the American Heart Asso- ciation, an estimated 80 million American adults (one in three) suffer from CHD. For many, the result is a heart attack, which occurs when the precious blood supply to the heart is blocked. This causes an uncomfortable feeling of pressure, fullness, squeezing, or pain in the center of the chest and sometimes sweating, dizziness, nausea, fainting, and shortness of breath.
Several factors are known to increase the risk of CHD. The three most important are hypertension, or high blood pressure; cigarette smoking; and high cholesterol. (Other risk factors include a family history of CHD, a high-fat diet, obesity, diabetes, and physical inactivity.) People with one of the major risk factors are twice as likely to develop CHD, those with two risk factors are three and a half times as likely, and those with all three are six times as likely. These statistics are compelling and should not be taken lightly. Combined, how- ever, these variables account for fewer than half the known cases of CHD. What’s missing from the equation is the fourth major risk factor: psychological stress.
