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For several years now, there has been stories in the media that have discussed the link between stress and heart disease. The link is that your risk of heart disease increases when you are under constant and long-term stress. One way to relate to this would be to think of how burnt-out your mind can feel when you are under stress. Same thing goes for your heart.
Stress is defined as a loss of equilibrium from the norm. Some degree of stress is normal and needed to function in everyday life in order to get things accomplished. Every person is different in the amount of stress that they can handle. However, it is agreed that when stress becomes prolonged whereby the body can no longer handle its effects, that things can go wrong in it.
You may have heard about good and bad kinds of stress. Good kinds of stress are things like moving to a new home, tying the knot, or having a newborn to look after. Examples of bad kinds of stress are illness, death, or dealing with bullies at school or at work.
What is important to realize is that there are positive and negative types of stress. Positive types of stress include moving to a new city, having a work deadline to meet, or having a baby. Negative types of stress, on the other hand, include death of a loved one, loss of a job, and so on. However, when the stress does not go away and stays with you all the time, is when you can become ill.
So what are the things that are going on in your body that cause this to happen? Your body resorts to "fight or flight." This was apparently a bodily response used by primitive man to flee from danger. When stressed, your body releases two hormones - adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is responsible for raising your blood pressure, the rate at which your heart beats, and increases your breathing speed. As a result, your heart is laboring more than usual. This is not good for your heart if it must do this for a long period of time. The cortisol hormone is responsible for increasing the amount of glucose in your blood. This glucose is needed to provide energy to your muscles if they need to remove you from immediate danger (fight or flee response).
When these two hormones take over due to stress that is always present, your heart has to work non-stop, and your blood pressure and glucose can rise to catastrophic levels. In other words, the fight or flight response never turns itself off. This is where the link between stress and heart disease comes in. If your heart is constantly working harder than it needs to, it can wear itself out. It can weaken, and stress is known to increase fatty deposits in arterial walls. Heart attack can be one of the results.
That is why it becomes so important to recognize that you are stressed, and to take steps to reduce the stress in your life. Figure out things that you can change in your life to get rid of the stress, and do things that take your mind off of the stress in your life.
In summary, making changes in your life will make a world of difference when it comes to your overall health and that of your heart.
Stress is defined as a loss of equilibrium from the norm. Some degree of stress is normal and needed to function in everyday life in order to get things accomplished. Every person is different in the amount of stress that they can handle. However, it is agreed that when stress becomes prolonged whereby the body can no longer handle its effects, that things can go wrong in it.
You may have heard about good and bad kinds of stress. Good kinds of stress are things like moving to a new home, tying the knot, or having a newborn to look after. Examples of bad kinds of stress are illness, death, or dealing with bullies at school or at work.
What is important to realize is that there are positive and negative types of stress. Positive types of stress include moving to a new city, having a work deadline to meet, or having a baby. Negative types of stress, on the other hand, include death of a loved one, loss of a job, and so on. However, when the stress does not go away and stays with you all the time, is when you can become ill.
So what are the things that are going on in your body that cause this to happen? Your body resorts to "fight or flight." This was apparently a bodily response used by primitive man to flee from danger. When stressed, your body releases two hormones - adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is responsible for raising your blood pressure, the rate at which your heart beats, and increases your breathing speed. As a result, your heart is laboring more than usual. This is not good for your heart if it must do this for a long period of time. The cortisol hormone is responsible for increasing the amount of glucose in your blood. This glucose is needed to provide energy to your muscles if they need to remove you from immediate danger (fight or flee response).
When these two hormones take over due to stress that is always present, your heart has to work non-stop, and your blood pressure and glucose can rise to catastrophic levels. In other words, the fight or flight response never turns itself off. This is where the link between stress and heart disease comes in. If your heart is constantly working harder than it needs to, it can wear itself out. It can weaken, and stress is known to increase fatty deposits in arterial walls. Heart attack can be one of the results.
That is why it becomes so important to recognize that you are stressed, and to take steps to reduce the stress in your life. Figure out things that you can change in your life to get rid of the stress, and do things that take your mind off of the stress in your life.
In summary, making changes in your life will make a world of difference when it comes to your overall health and that of your heart.
About the Author:
Discover more ways to look after your heart by checking out my Heart Vitamins blog for tips, information, and heart vitamins, as well as to pick up your FREE report of The Cholesterol Theory - A Tragedy to Health, found on my main page .
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