Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsThe LinkMinimizing RiskSeeing a Provider
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Table of Contents
The Link
Minimizing Risk
Seeing a Provider
While stress doesn’t directly cause heart attacks, it can cause symptoms, such as high blood pressure, that lead to heart disease, indirectly increasing the risk of a heart attack.
When you’re stressed, you may experience physical symptoms like an increased heart rate and high blood pressure—symptoms that, over time, can increase your risk for a heart attack. On the flip side, some people may de-prioritize healthy habits, like eating well and exercising, and turn to coping strategies like smoking or eating fast food when they’re stressed, which can increase heart attack risk.
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Stress and Heart Health: What’s the Link?
Both acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) stress can impact heart health. Stress activates the body’s fight-or-flight response, during which the body releases adrenaline, causing breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure to increase. Over time, this heightened activation can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Risk of Heart Attack Without Heart Disease
Many people think that aheart attackonly happens along with heart disease or when there are blockages in the arteries that prevent blood flow to the heart. However, this is not always the case.
Myocardial infarction with nonobstructive coronary arteries, orMINOCA, is a type of heart attack that happens without blockage. Yet, it is still due to insufficient blood flow to the heart. This condition affects more young Black and Hispanic women than other groups.
Heart attack without heart disease poses a challenge with diagnosis. Young women may have somesymptoms of heart attack, such as pain or pressure in the chest and difficulty breathing. However, a coronary angiogram (specialized imaging of the heart) that detects blockages will show normal results, which often leads to a misdiagnosis of panic attacks or anxiety.
Although a heart attack can happen withoutheart disease, the risk is lower. Additionally, some of the same risk factors for heart attack without heart disease are also risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, and stress. More research on MINOCA is needed to identify risk factors better and improve diagnosis and earlier treatment.
Risk of Heart Attack With Heart Disease
The risk of heart attack is higher among those with heart disease. Heart disease may involve blockages in the arteries that carry blood to the heart and restrict blood flow. When the blockages build up too much, not enough blood reaches the heart muscle, resulting in a heart attack
Early warning signs ofblockagesthat may cause a heart attack include:
How to Minimize Stress and Heart Attack Risk
Stress can be a response to many different life circumstances. Regardless of the stressor, it can lead to heart health concerns. There is a 40% increased risk of heart disease and heart attack among women with stressful jobs. Stressors such as financial concerns and caregiving increase the risk.
Strategies to minimize stress include the following:
Healthy lifestyle choices like nutrition, exercise, and relaxation exercises can minimize stress and heart attack risk. It is ideal to reduce stress early on so that its effects never escalate to a heart attack. Also, it is vital to keep stress levels low after a heart attack to heal and prevent another.
When to Discuss Ongoing Stress With a Provider
You should address stress lasting more than a few weeks with a healthcare professional such as a psychologist or primary care provider. In addition to being unpleasant and affecting daily life, it can increase the risk of various health complications, including heart attack.
Acardiologistis a doctor who specializes in treating the heart. The first appointment is often with a primary care provider, who can determine if seeing a specialist would be a good next step. It is essential to seek emergency services for more acute symptoms, such as difficulty breathing or sudden chest pain.
Women need to seek emergency care if there is suspicion of a heart attack, as symptoms are often less obvious among women and may mirror symptoms of anxiety.
Summary
While stress typically does not directly cause a heart attack, it can adversely affect heart health. Stress can increase the risk of heart disease and blockages in the arteries that carry blood to the heart and reduce blood flow to the heart muscle. Since a heart attack involves too little blood flow to the heart, too much long-term stress increases the risk of heart attack.
Heart attacks can happen even without heart disease and blockages, especially among women. Regular exercise, eating healthy, whole foods, and prioritizing sleep can reduce the risk of stress’s adverse effects on the heart.
7 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.Stress and heart health.Yale School of Medicine.Yes, stress can hurt your heart: 3 things to know.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Broken heart syndrome.Cedars Sinai.What is MINOCA? A type of heart attack mostly affecting women.American Heart Association.What is cardiovascular disease?Harvard Medical School.Reduce your stress to protect your heart.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.
7 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.Stress and heart health.Yale School of Medicine.Yes, stress can hurt your heart: 3 things to know.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Broken heart syndrome.Cedars Sinai.What is MINOCA? A type of heart attack mostly affecting women.American Heart Association.What is cardiovascular disease?Harvard Medical School.Reduce your stress to protect your heart.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American Heart Association.Stress and heart health.Yale School of Medicine.Yes, stress can hurt your heart: 3 things to know.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Broken heart syndrome.Cedars Sinai.What is MINOCA? A type of heart attack mostly affecting women.American Heart Association.What is cardiovascular disease?Harvard Medical School.Reduce your stress to protect your heart.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.
American Heart Association.Stress and heart health.
Yale School of Medicine.Yes, stress can hurt your heart: 3 things to know.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Broken heart syndrome.
Cedars Sinai.What is MINOCA? A type of heart attack mostly affecting women.
American Heart Association.What is cardiovascular disease?
Harvard Medical School.Reduce your stress to protect your heart.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.
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