A stressful life significantly increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, new evidence suggests. Experts last night said the findings – the strongest yet to link mental wellbeing with physical health – suggest doctors should start treating people with chronic stress as being at risk of heart attacks. They found that people 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
Key Takeaways:
- Scientists at Harvard Medical School 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 they used high-tech MRI scanners to examine the brains, hearts and bone marrow of nearly 300 patients.
- They found that people 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.
“The team think this is because the stressed brain sends signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells, which play a crucial role in supporting the immune system – a natural defence mechanism if someone feels under threat.”
