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Mental stress may trigger a second heart attack Lifestyle
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Mental stress may trigger a second heart attack

New York, March 21 (IANS) For those who have survived a heart attack, mental stress -- and not physical stress -- may be a stronger predictor of a repeat heart attack or even dying from heart disease, warn researchers. ## The team at Emory University investigated whether myocardial ischemia -- when blood flow to the heart is reduced such that the heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen -- induced by mental stress was associated with poor outcomes among heart attack survivors, and how this type of stress testing compares with conventional stress brought on by exercise. ## Among more than 300 young and middle-aged individuals enrolled in the study, those who endured myocardial ischemia with mental stress had a two-fold higher likelihood of having another heart attack or dying from heart disease compared with those who did not have cardiac ischemia induced by mental stress. ## "In our study, myocardial ischemia provoked by mental stress was a better risk indicator than what we were able to see with conventional stress testing," said Viola Vaccarino from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta and the study's principal investigator. ## This is the only study of its kind in this relatively young adult population of heart attack survivors. ## "These data point to the important effect that psychological stress can have on the heart and on the prognosis of patients with heart disease," she added. ## The investigators studied 306 adults aged 61 years or younger (50 years on average and ranging from 22-61 years), who had been in the hospital for a heart attack in the previous eight months. ## Traditional stress tests, in which someone exercises on a treadmill or takes a medicine that makes the heart beat faster and harder as if the person was actually exercising, have long been used to check blood flow to the heart and gauge the risk of heart problems. ## Taking into account patients' psychological stress may help clinicians better evaluate the risk of recurrent heart attacks or death seen in some patients surviving a heart attack. ## Overall, mental stress induced myocardial ischemia occurred in 16 per cent of patients and conventional ischemia in 35 per cent, suggesting that traditional ischemia due to exercise or drug-induced stress is more common. ## Over a three-year follow-up, 10 per cent of patients (28 individuals) had another heart attack and two died of heart-related problems. ## The incidence of heart attack or cardiovascular-related death was more than doubled in patients with mental stress induced ischemia compared with those without mental stress ischemia, occurring in 10 (20 per cent) and 20 (8 per cent) patients, respectively. ## "Patients who developed ischemia with mental stress had more than two times the risk of having a repeat heart attack or dying from heart disease compared with those who did not develop ischemia during mental stress," Vaccarino elaborated. ## What this means is that the propensity to have a reduction in blood flow to the heart during acute psychological stress poses substantial future risk to these patients, ## Such reduction in blood flow, when it occurs in real life, could trigger a heart attack or serious heart rhythm problems, she said. ## Another interesting finding, according to Vaccarino, is that ischemia with mental stress and with conventional stress were not strongly related to each other, suggesting that they occur through different pathways. ## "This points to the fact that stress provoked by emotions has a distinct mechanism of risk for heart disease and its complications compared with physical stress," she noted. ## For more and the latest news about Lifestyle, stay tuned to us.

Heavy stress may shorten our life expectancy Lifestyle
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Heavy stress may shorten our life expectancy

London, March 15 (IANS) If you are taking too much stress, read this carefully. Researchers have found that life expectancy is influenced not only by the traditional lifestyle-related risk factors but also by factors related to a person's quality of life, such as heavy stress. ## The study, published in the journal BMJ Open, was based on data collected from men and women aged 25 to 74 in the Finnish National FINRISK Study 1987-2007 through questionnaires and measurements. The rate of mortality was followed until the end of 2014. ## For the findings, the researchers calculated the effects of multiple risk factors, including lifestyle-related ones, to the life expectancy of men and women. ## "Before, life expectancy has usually been assessed based on only a few sociodemographic background factor groups, such as age, sex, and education. In this study, we wanted to assess the impact of several different factors to a person's life expectancy, so we could compare their effects," said study researcher Tommi Harkanen from National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland. ## The researchers calculated the life expectancies by changing the values of each risk factor at a time and keeping the values of other factors constant. ## Only the BMI, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels were allowed to be changed when the values related to lifestyle factors were changed. ## They found that the biggest causes for shortened life expectancy for 30-year-old men are smoking and diabetes. Smoking takes 6.6 years and diabetes 6.5 years out of their life expectancy. ## Being under heavy stress shortens their life expectancy by 2.8 years, the study said. ## The research also revealed that a lack of exercise strongly reduced the life expectancy of 30-year-old men -- by 2.4 years. ## On the other hand, things such as the consumption of plenty of fruits and vegetables could increase life expectancy: eating fruit by 1.4 years and eating vegetables by 0.9 years. ## The same factors impacted the life expectancy of both men and women. ## For 30-year-old women, e.g. smoking shortened the life expectancy by 5.5 years, diabetes by 5.3 years, and heavy stress by 2.3 years. The effects to the life expectancy of older people were similar but smaller than in younger age groups. ## Differences between the life expectancies of men and women largely due to risk factors that can be changed, according to the researchers. ## "What was interesting about the study was how small the difference in the life expectancy of 30-year men and women was based on the same risk factor values -- only 1.6 years," said study researcher Seppo Koskinen. ## The lifestyle choices that increase mortality, such as smoking, heavy alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise, are most common in the population groups whose social position is the weakest, the study said. ## For more and the latest news about Lifestyle, stay tuned to us.