Not only stress itself is dangerous, but thoughts about it can cause serious problems. It turns out that subjectively perceived stress, or to what extent you think your stress is strong, is associated with a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease.
The researchers analyzed six studies to understand how putative stress affects the heart. In each of the studies, participants were asked to tell whether they experience intense or frequent feelings of stress. Then the participants were observed for another 14 years, was not diagnosed with coronary heart disease, and who did not die from this disease. The following results were obtained: among participants who at one time indicated a high level of stress, the risk of developing coronary heart disease was 27% higher.
“When people say they have stress, this is an indicator of how often they feel the increased reactivity of their autonomic nervous system,” said Donald Edmondson, a behavioral medicine specialist at Columbia University Medical Center, one of the authors of the study.
In other words, when our mind feels the need for action, what happens when we are confronted with a stressful situation, our body “prepares” to give some kind of answer. When this happens, adrenaline increases blood pressure, which can overwork the heart. Although this natural reaction was also inherent in our early ancestors, modern stresses do not require an urgent need for physical action.
“Today, we are under stress not because we have to run away from the lion,” he says. - "But because our boss gives us more work than we can do, in our opinion, or one of our family members needs help, and we are trying to take on too many things at once. The body is preparing to be active, but cordially “Damage to the vascular system.”
This damage can be so devastating that over time the cardiovascular system will deteriorate, which can lead to plaque formation, plaque rupture and heart problems.
