It makes sense for just about anyone who has had to deal with anxiety that there would eventually be some sort of research between the link, if any, between anxiety and heart disease. Perhaps there are already numerous studies that have looked at this, and certainly there are quite a few psychologists and psychiatrists that see the link, but this article that ran in The Atlantic has an interesting excerpt from a new book on this very subject.
It makes sense that anxiety would play a role in heart disease, right? When we don’t feel well because of panic, anxiety, stress, depression etc, we have all sorts of things start to happen. Sleep begins to suffer, concentration wilts and quite a few of us will at some point begin to engage in “sympathy eating” or similar habits where we start not caring about the little things in light of the rest of our stresses and ills going on. Some of this is certainly understandable, but at a certain point, everyone’s health is bound to suffer somewhat. Take a look at the an excerpt from this article.
Like anger, anxiety may forecast the development of coronary heart disease. We all know the tight feeling that we get in the chest when we become very anxious, so we should not be surprised to learn that this emotion can affect heart health. The circumstantial evidence supporting anxiety as a marker of heart risk is strong. In an observational study of 50,000 18- to 20-year-old Swedish men, those with high levels of anxiety substantially increased their risk of developing coronary heart disease over the next 37 years.
Of course, the mind and the body are intricately linked, making for an interesting situation where one suffers the ills of the other, for lack of a less dramatic and pseudo-poetic description.
The power of the mind to help heal, or even hurt our bodies has been expressed in terms of anecdotes for years and years. It would seem, per the study discussed in the article, that the anecdote may carry a fair amount of weight. Interesting information indeed.
Notice though, that in this short excerpt that there is no mention of stress hormones, changes in blood pressure, or even blood sugar issues as a result of changes to diet as well as the possible link between excessive cortisol levels as a result of high stress, but a focus on emotions. There really isn’t much to add, just food for thought on a subject that we’re all likely to find a bit of interest in.
Please, remember to check out the entire article, which also takes a look at the role of anger, in addition to the link between anxiety and heart disease and if anyone picks up the book, Heart 411: The Only Guide to Heart Health You’ll Ever Need drop a comment and let everyone know how it is and whether it’s worth a go. So far, I’ve not had a chance to look at it, but it’s on the list of books to check out in the near future.
