Managing Stress to Help Protect Your Heart

Although there’s no concrete evidence that stress itself can lead to cardiovascular disease, there is increasing evidence suggesting a relationship between the risk of cardiovascular disease and environmental and psychosocial factors, including job strain, social isolation and personality traits.⁴⁰ Stress may affect other risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure⁴¹ or lead to heart-unhealthy behaviors such as smoking.¹⁵ It also can lead to depression, anxiety, and anger, all of which can adversely impact heart disease survivors.⁴²

A very large study, “INTERHEART,” examined stress at work, at home, with finances and in general in first time heart attack survivors compared with 13,648 individuals in 52 countries who had not had a heart attack. Individuals who had suffered a heart attack were more likely to have been suffering from each of these types of stress. This study also confirmed that depression is more common among heart attack patients than in those who have not suffered from a heart attack.⁴³

That's why it's so important to reduce your level of stress. In fact, the reduction of stress may be as beneficial as aerobic exercise to prevent future heart ailments.⁴⁴

Adopting regular stress management techniques that incorporate stretching, progressive relaxation, imagery, breathing exercises and meditation, such as yoga, can also help. These activities increase awareness of physical, emotional and spiritual health. As a result, patients can recognize the effects of stress and learn to make changes in the way they respond.⁴⁵

In a study at Duke University Medical Center, researchers divided patients with heart disease into three groups: one group did aerobic exercise, another took stress-management classes and the third one acted as a control group and received standard care. After being monitored for five years, the group receiving standard care had the most cardiac events (e.g., heart attacks, open-heart surgery or angioplasty). The group that engaged in stress management had fewer problems, equal to that of the aerobics group.⁴⁴

Tips for Managing Stress

If you have heart disease and want to learn how to best manage stress, your first conversation should be with your doctor. He or she can recommend local programs and counselors who can provide help on how to better adjust to life situations that may cause stress. In addition, your doctor should have a list of local support groups, such as Mended Hearts, where you can meet other people in similar situations and learn their coping strategies and mechanisms.

In addition, the American Heart Association suggests the following strategies for reducing stress^46,49:

• Talk with family, friends or other trusted advisors about your concerns and stresses and ask for their support.
• Take 15 or 20 minutes each day to sit quietly, breathe deeply and concentrate on a pleasing, peaceful scene.
• Learn to accept things you can’t change and understand that you can’t, and aren’t expected to, solve every problem.
• Count to 10 before answering or responding when you feel angry. If you feel very angry, count to 100.
• Try to identify situations ahead-of-time that will cause you stress and try to avoid them. If you know a particular route to the office is generally filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic, try to find an alternate route. It may take you longer to get to work, but you will experience less stress.
• Don’t use smoking, drinking, overeating, drugs or caffeine to cope with stress. These make things worse.
• Instead of getting angry about problems, focus on finding solutions.
• Seek out a mental health professional or counselor if you are having trouble coping on your own.
• Check with your doctor to determine what activity level is right for you and try to exercise on a regular basis.

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