By Dr. Mercola
Stress has enormous implications for your health. From an
evolutionary perspective, the stress response is a lifesaving biological
function that enables you to instinctively square off against an
assailant, run away from a predator or take down a prey.
However, those of us living in the modern world are now activating
this same biological reaction in response to activities and events that
have no life-threatening implications whatsoever, from speaking in
public to filling out tax forms and sitting in traffic jams.
The sheer number of stress-inducing situations facing us on a daily
basis can actually make it difficult to turn the stress response off,
and marinating in corrosive stress hormones around the clock can have
very serious consequences for your health.
Stubborn fat accumulation, high blood pressure and heart attack are just a few of the many health consequences associated with chronic stress. Acute stress can also have potentially lethal consequences.
I recently wrote about broken heart syndrome — a condition prefaced by acute and severe stress or shock, such as the unexpected death of a loved one.
High-Stress Lifestyle Raises Your Risk of Heart Attack
There's no shortage of evidence showing that stress impacts your
health. And, since your heart and mind are so closely interlinked, your
mental state can have a particularly significant influence on your heart
health.
According to recent research, stress increases your risk of heart attack and stroke by causing overactivity in your amygdala.1,2,3
Known as your brain's fear center, this almond-shaped brain region,
located in your temporal lobe, is activated in response to both real and
perceived threats.
Other recent research suggests the amygdala is also involved in the
processing of other emotions, including positive ones, as well as the
processing of emotional memories of all kinds.
Still, its involvement in fear and threat detection is
well-established, and one of its most basic jobs is to keep you safe by
biochemically preparing you to fight or flee as needed.
In this study, inflammation levels as well as brain and bone marrow
activity of 293 participants were measured. All of the participants were
over the age of 30, and none had a diagnosed heart problem.
By the end of the observation period, which lasted between two and
five years, 22 participants had experienced a serious cardiac event such
as heart attack, stroke or angina (chest pain).
Based on brain scans, the researchers were able to conclude that
those with higher activity in the amygdala were at an elevated risk of a
cardiac event. As it turns out, there appears to be a significant
correlation between amygdala activity and arterial inflammation (which
is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke).
This was confirmed in another much smaller sub-study involving those with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).4,5
Here, levels of C-reactive protein were also measured, showing that
those reporting the highest stress levels also had the highest amygdala
activity and higher levels of inflammatory markers.
Overactive Fear Response Is a Recipe for Heart Attack and Stroke
In short, people who are highly stressed have higher activity in the
amygdala. This in turn triggers inflammation, which is a risk factor for
heart disease. These findings are not concrete proof of causation, however, and need to be validated through further research.
That said, previous studies have shown that activation of the
amygdala can trigger arterial inflammation by triggering immune cell
production in the bone marrow. As reported by The Huffington Post:6
"A healthy amygdala can help to protect the brain against stress,
while an amygdala that's hyper-excitable as a result of chronic stress
or other factors can amplify the stress response.
The new study shows, for the first time, how an overactive
amygdala can cause heart attack and stroke. When stress triggers the
amygdala, it activates bone marrow and inflammation of the arteries to
create the conditions for a heart attack.
'Our results provide a unique insight into how stress may lead to
cardiovascular disease,' Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, a Harvard cardiologist and
the study's lead author, said … 'This raises the possibility that
reducing stress could produce benefits that extend beyond an improved
sense of psychological well-being.'"
Ilze Bot, Ph.D., a Dutch biopharmaceutical researcher who wrote an accompanying commentary to the study, added:7
"In the past decade, more and more individuals experience
psychosocial stress on a daily basis. Heavy workloads, job insecurity or
living in poverty are circumstances that can result in chronically
increased stress
These clinical data establish a connection between stress and
cardiovascular disease, thus identifying chronic stress as a true risk
factor for acute cardiovascular syndromes, which could, given the
increasing number of individuals with chronic stress, be included in
risk assessments of cardiovascular disease in daily clinical practice."
Other Ways Stress Can Trigger a Heart Attack
Stress can also promote or trigger a heart attack in other ways. For example, studies8
have shown that as your stress level rises, so do your level of
disease-promoting white blood cells, and this is yet another way by
which stress can lead to atherosclerosis, plaque rupture and myocardial
infarction.
During moments of high stress your body also releases norepinephrine, which researchers claim9
can cause the dispersal of bacterial biofilms from the walls of your
arteries. This dispersal can allow plaque deposits to suddenly break
loose, thereby triggering a heart attack.
A sudden release of large amounts of stress hormones and rapid
elevations in blood pressure may even trigger a heart attack or stroke
even if you don't have a heart problem. In the case of broken heart
syndrome, the symptoms of a heart attack occur even though there's no
actual damage to the heart at all.
According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), broken heart
syndrome is a "temporary condition where your heart muscle becomes
suddenly weakened or stunned." The left ventricle (your heart's largest
chamber) also changes shape, which adds to the temporary dysfunction.
This sudden weakness of the heart is thought to be due to the sudden
release of large quantities of adrenaline and other stress hormones.
This is what is believed happened to Debbie Reynolds.
Adrenaline increases your blood pressure and heart rate, and it's
been suggested it may lead to narrowing of the arteries that supply
blood to your heart, or even bind directly to heart cells allowing large
amounts of calcium to enter and render the cells temporarily unable to
function properly.
While most will successfully recover, in some, the change of shape of
the left ventricle can trigger a fatal heart attack. Having a history
of neurological problems, such as seizure disorders, and/or a history of
mental health problems is thought to raise your risk.10
On the upside, while the condition can be life-threatening and requires
immediate medical attention, it's usually a temporary condition that
leaves no permanent damage.
Recognizing the Signs of Stress
Many have gotten so used to being wound up into a stress-knot, they
don't even realize the position they're in. So, the first step is to
recognize that you're stressed, and then take steps to address it.
Common signs and symptoms of stress include:11
Sleeping poorly, trouble falling asleep and excessive tiredness
Binge drinking
Lack of appetite or overeating
Having a "short fuse"/being quick to anger or losing your temper
Feeling overwhelmed, sad or irritable; frequent crying or quick to tears
Headaches and/or general aches and pains
Releasing Your Amygdala's Death Grip
Knowing the amygdala's role in inflammation and heart attacks, it
seems reasonable to conclude that part of the answer is learning to
reduce the activity in your amygdala. When your amygdala is triggered by
a real or perceived threat, oxygen is shunted from your internal
organs, including your brain, to the extremities. Essentially, your body
is prepared for fighting — not thinking! After all, thinking is of
little use when facing a man-eating foe. Muscle function takes
precedence.
However, in today's world, critical thinking is really what's
required when facing a stressful situation, be it a traffic jam or an
interpersonal difficultly. Fist-fighting is not the most appropriate
solution here, yet because of the stress response, your brain has
largely been shut off.
Step one, then, is to bring oxygen back to your brain. The video
above describes a simple breathing technique to help you do that. Simply
breathe in to a count of four; hold your breath for another count of
four; breathe out to the count of four; and hold again for a count of
four.
Other Helpful Breathing Methods
There are many very good breathing techniques
out there that will likely do the trick. You may want to experiment
with a few different ones to see if one works better than another.
Another one I like is the 4-7-8 breathing exercise taught by Dr. Andrew Weil.
Sit up straight and place the tip of your tongue up against the back
of your front teeth. Keep it there through the entire breathing process
Breathe in silently through your nose to the count of four, hold
your breath to the count of seven and exhale through your mouth to the
count of eight, making an audible "whoosh" sound. That completes one
full breath
Repeat the cycle another three times, for a total of four breaths.
After the first month, you can work your way up to a total of eight
breaths per session
A third method is the controlled breathing method taught by Patrick
McKeown, one of the top teachers of the Buteyko Breathing Method. If
you're experiencing anxiety or panic attacks, or if you feel very
stressed and your mind can't stop racing, try the following breathing
sequence.
Its effectiveness stems from the fact that it helps retain and gently
accumulate carbon dioxide. This not only helps calm your breathing but
also reduces anxiety. In short, the urge to breathe will decline as you
go into a more relaxed state:
Take a small breath into your nose, followed by a small breath out
Hold your nose for five seconds in order to hold your breath, and then release your nose to resume breathing
Breathe normally for 10 seconds
Repeat the sequence several more times
Countering Stress With the Relaxation Response
Once you've addressed the oxygenation of your brain, next, engage in
some sort of physical relaxation technique, as the stress response
causes the muscles in your body to tighten. One simple one that can be
done anywhere is to tighten the muscles in an area for a few seconds,
and then release; moving from section to section. Start with your feet
and legs, and move upward. This may even be done in concert with your
breathing exercise of choice. Visualization techniques
such as those taught by Dr. Martin Rossman, author of "The Worry
Solution," can also be helpful. Imagery is the natural language of your
brain, which is in part why visualization and guided imagery exercises
are so powerful for changing thoughts and behavior.
As noted by Rossman, the three keys to calmness are breathing,
relaxation and visualization. Ideally, do all three. Here's Rossman's
suggestion for pursuing calmness: Breathe and relax your body part by
part, then imagine being in a beautiful, peaceful place where you feel
safe. This could be either a real or imaginary place. Spend 10 or 20
minutes there, actively visualizing the serenity of your surroundings,
to interrupt the stress response.
This will disengage your fight or flight response, allowing your
physiology to return to equilibrium, or what is also termed "the
relaxation response." This is a compensatory repair, renew and recharge
state that brings you back to balance. Mindfulness training
— which focuses on being present in the moment — is another strategy
that can be very helpful. In one study, people who participated in 10
sessions over the course of one month experienced "significantly
decreased" stress, anxiety and depression.12
Mindfulness meditationis a more formal practice of mindfulness, in
which you consciously zone in on, or focus your attention on, specific
thoughts or sensations, then observe them in a non-judgmental manner.
The Emotional Freedom Technique Is a Targeted Technique You Can Use for Stress Relief
Last but not least, energy psychology techniques such as the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
can be very effective for reducing stress by helping you to actually
reprogram your body's reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday
life. This is important as, generally speaking, a stressor becomes a
problem when:
Your response to it is negative
Your feelings and emotions are inappropriate for the circumstances
Your response lasts an excessively long time
You're feeling continuously overwhelmed, overpowered or overworked
EFT is not the same thing as mindfulness; it is entirely different
and used for different purposes. I regard mindfulness and meditation as
tools that are useful for your entire life, like exercise for your mind.
Ideally, you should strive to be mindful and use meditation daily.
EFT is different in that it works best for targetedstress relief,
such as recovering from an emotional trauma or overcoming an addiction.
You might only need to use EFT a few times throughout your life, while
mindfulness and meditation are life-long endeavors.
When you use EFT, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to input
kinetic energy onto specific meridians on your head and chest while you
think about your specific problem and voice positive affirmations. This
combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive
affirmation works to clear the "short-circuit" — the emotional block —
from your body's bioenergy system, thus restoring your mind and body's
balance, which is essential for optimal health and the healing of
chronic stress.
While the video above will easily teach you how to tap for stress, it
is important to realize that self-treatment for more serious issues is
not recommended. For serious or complex issues, you need an experienced
practitioner to guide you through the process, as there is an incredible
art to it; it typically takes years of training to develop the skill to
tap on deep-seated problems.
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