How Stress Affects Your Heart Health

For many people, stress is part of everyday life. The demands of work, family, and other quotidian pressures can leave one feeling angry, agitated, anxious, downtrodden, or burned out. While these kinds of day-to-day challenges are often described as mild forms of stress, the reality is that some people will experience them more often and more significantly than others. And there’s mounting evidence linking these and other forms of stress to heart-related health problems. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “We know from several studies in different populations that emotional and psychological stress is associated with an increased likelihood of developing and dying of cardiovascular disease,” says Dr. Beth Cohen, a stress researcher and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.  For example, research on stress in the workplace has found that people who are under regular strain or who work long hours are up to 40% more likely than their less-taxed counterparts to eventually develop heart disease or stroke. “There are also studies looking at what we call perceived stress, which is the amount of stress a person reports feeling, regardless of cause,” Cohen says. There again, research has found that people who report feeling a lot of stress are at elevated risk for cardiovascular problems down the road.   Meanwhile, some of Cohen’s work has examined the health effects of stress that s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized freelance healthscienceclimate Source Type: news