Is it that big of a deal?
Stress
Don't bite hooked cheese
Here we go. Another story from Dr. Lughead’s life!
Several years ago, my family and I went to a family reunion at a mountain resort. There was a trout pond only several feet deep with no way for the fish to go up or down the creek. Excited, we cast in the cheese on a hook and waited, and waited, and waited. After an hour of nothing, we threw the rest of the cheese in the pond and the trout swarmed and ate every last bit. These fish had learned through prior “stress” the difference between cheese on a hook and cheese that wasn’t.
What’s your point? What do fish and cheese have anything to do with stress?
My point is that “stress” can be a good thing. Our reaction to stressors is often where the problem lies. Everyone has stress. What response to stress is good and what is bad when it comes to your heart?
Does stress really affect the heart?
Stress is the third most powerful factor when it comes to having heart attacks, just behind high cholesterol, and smoking. Stress has been shown to be the cause of a condition called “Takatsubo Cardiomyopathy.” Another name for this condition is broken heart syndrome. It generally occurs when one has had a sudden stressful event in life such as an unexpected death of a loved one, financial loss, or a sudden illness such a s a stroke or blood stream infection. The stressor causes parts of the heart to literally stop moving leading to chest pain and abnormal blood testing. When people come to the hospital with this it looks just like a real heart attack. The heart eventually gets better usually after a few weeks.
The more people feel in control of their lives, the less likely they are to have a heart attack.
The 4 "F's"
So if everyone has stress, why isn’t everyone dropping over dead when they have stress? What kind of stress causes heart disease?
In the Interheart study that evaluated over 15,000 heart attack patients worldwide, subjects were asked about stress, depression, and life stressors. Specifically, they were asked how often they felt irritable, anxious or had sleep difficulties because of home or work stress. They were asked about marital separation, divorce, loss of job, retirement, business failure, crop failure, violence, family conflict, personal injury/illness, death/illness of close family members or death of a spouse. The measured how “in control” people felt over their lives. Lastly, they screened all patients for depression.
What did they find?
The conclusion was that the more in control people felt over their lives, the less likely they were to have heart disease. They also noted that the more “stress” one perceived at home, work, or financially, the more likely one was to have a heart attack. Permanent stress had the highest association with heart disease regardless of where the stress occurred. Lastly, untreated depression also contributed to heart disease.
Okay, so what can I do to reduce my stress?
So, back to our little pond of fish. How do we avoid the hooked cheese or in other words, how do we avoid the bad stress? After recommending treatment for any existing depression, I offer four suggestions to my patients–all starting with the letter “F.”
1). Faith: God was never spoken of in class during my time in medical school. Maybe He should have been. Religious people have less heart disease. Knowing where you come from, why you’re here, and where you go after you leave here, makes a huge difference in the way I look at my work, my family, my life, and others. It’s nice to know that no matter what happens, God is in charge.
2). Friends: It’s just nice to be a part of something with others and it improves cardiovascular health.
3). Family: Married men and women do live longer. I know a guy who said that it only feels like married men live longer! Had to laugh.
4). Finances: Interestingly, the Interheart study showed that the stress of money was irrelevant to the amount one made.
In Summary
The best protection against chronic stress are the 4 “F’s”: Friends, Faith, Finances, and Family. If you’re depressed–get help.