Don't Stress Your Heart Out

NEW YORK - Take a deep breath. For many it's the first step in controlling stress and anxiety that could lead to a heart attack.

There's no doubt that watching your blood and cholesterol levels and controlling your weight through nutrition and exercise will help prevent heart disease, but there's one factor many people dismiss--stress control.

Everyone has stress at times. That can be good--people look forward to challenges--but excessive stress can contribute to raised cholesterol levels, higher blood pressure and problems like ulcers. These days people blame their stress on having too may demands such as marriage, kids, work or money, yet they don't take time out for relaxation.

There are no studies that show a direct correlation between stress and heart disease, but doctors at Duke University Medical Center have conducted two studies showing stress management will reduce myocardial ischemia--the state in which the heart does not get enough blood supply to its own muscle.

"We have physiological reactions to stress. It's the body trying to deal with imminent threat, so the body secretes lots of chemicals that engage us to fight or run, which includes increasing your blood rate," says Dr. Michael Babyak, associate clinical professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center. "In a true immediate emergency it's a good thing, but when the stress hormones get chronically released, it does damage to the body."

There are two ways that stress influences a heart attack: It sets a person up for the disease that causes heart attacks, and it puts a lot of demand on the heart and its vessels because stress speeds up heart rate. According to Babyak, this can cause the fatty areas inside the vessels to burst and break off, leading to clots.

Stress management may not be easy, especially if people don't pay attention to their symptoms and the causes, but stress can be controlled in simple ways. Fancy tricks and costly procedures aren't the only ways to manage stress. The best technique is simply taking time out to sit in a quiet place and relax.

Doctors at Duke University Medical Center also use stress management education to help patients. "We teach people what are called cognitive coping skills, and that's teaching how to reframe how a person reacts to a situation so that they don't release stress hormones," says Babyak.

Other ways to relieve stress are to get more sleep and to address signs of depression, even if it means seeking a therapist or finding a good friend to talk to. Dr. Alan Rozanski, professor of Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, says, "It's important, when you feel stressed, to get connected. People with large social networks are always less stressed."

And sometimes, the best way to deal with stress is not by focusing on what's wrong, but instead focusing on the positive aspects of life--like having meaningful goals and being happy.