Study reveals specific brain activity that may link stress to heart attack
A study, led by a team from Harvard Medical School in the US, reveals that increased risk of heart attack in people is linked with constant stress in a part of the brain that is linked to fear and fear conditioning. The US researchers noted that stress could be as important a factor as high blood pressure and smoking.
In a study of 300 people, those with higher activity in the amygdala – the integrative center for emotions, emotional behavior, and motivation – were more likely to develop cardiovascular diseasesthan others.
According to heart experts, at-risk patients should be helped to manage stress.
Emotional stress has long been linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which affects the heart and blood vessels – but the way this happens has not been properly understood.
The study’s findings suggest that the amygdala signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells, which in turn act on the arteries causing them to become inflamed. This can then cause heart attacks, angina and strokes.
As a result, when stressed, this part of the brain appears to be a good predictor of cardiovascular events. However, they also said more research was needed to confirm this chain of events.
Looking at two different studies, the researchers first scanned the brain, bone marrow, spleen and arteries of 293 patients, who were tracked for nearly four years to see if they developed CVD. In this time, 22 patients did, and they were the ones with higher activity in the amygdala.
The second very small study, of 13 patients, looked at the relationship between stress levels and inflammation in the body.It found that those who reported the highest levels of stress had the highest levels of amygdala activity and more evidence of inflammation in their blood and arteries.
Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, lead author and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the results of their study provide a unique insight into how stress may lead to cardiovascular disease. He added that it “raises the possibility that reducing stress could produce benefits that extend beyond an improved sense of psychological wellbeing.”
“Eventually, chronic stress could be treated as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is routinely screened for and effectively managed like other major cardiovascular disease risk factors,” Dr. Tawakol added.
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