Stress can lead to heart attacks and stroke, shows a 2017 research published in The Lancet.
Chronic stress can be as bad for the health of your heart as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Despite the fact that stress is so widespread and presents such a big risk, very little is known about how it actually affects us.
The study from Harvard University was the first to show that processes that have been studied in mice, are actually valid for humans too. The researchers already knew that stress is linked to higher activity in an area of the brain that processes emotions. It’s called the amygdala. So what they did was two separate complimentary studies to try and bring to light how this may lead to higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The amygdala
The amygdala is this place in our brains that is scanning our environment for danger. It also determines our response to anything that is perceived as a threat. When you experience stress, the amygdala sends a signal to your hypothalamus, which then communicates this to the rest of your body so it is ready to fight or to run.
The findings
In the first longitudinal study, the researchers looked at the brain scans of 293 people. They found that when you are stressed, your amygdala signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells. This in turn causes the arteries to become inflamed. And we already know that inflammation is involved in the process that leads to heart attacks, angina and strokes.
The second (smaller) study looked specifically at inflammation of the arteries and activity in the amygdala in highly stressed people. It again found that an overactive amygdala caused more arterial inflammation. People who rated themselves as more stressed were also more likely to have higher levels of activity in the amygdala.
Relaxation techniques
The thing is, stress is part of life. We may not be able to change our current situation – most often we can’t control other people or what happens to us even if we try. But we can take steps to manage the impact events have on us.
We can learn to identify what causes us stress and to take care of ourselves physically and emotionally in the face of stressful situations.
Relaxation techniques such as yoga, breathing, massage and meditation are useful stress management strategies. These practices down-regulate the nervous system by switching on it’s “rest and digest” mode. They bring us back to our bodies and the current moment. They also help us quieten our ever busy minds, leading us away from feeling fearful and threatened.
In this way we are able to get in touch with the many resources we have to deal with the stuff in our lives.
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