The unexpected factors that increase the risk of heart attack and stroke by 35%

Depression, anxiety and chronic stress are some of the conditions that not only make the daily life of the sufferers difficult, but also put the health of the heart and brain at great risk. These confirmed the results of two preliminary studies that will be presented at the American Heart Association scientific conference (November 11-13, 2023).

In the first study investigated the mechanism by which mental state affects heart health. As found, anxiety and depression accelerated the development of new CVD risk factors. «In our study, we identified a mechanism that appears to largely explain the relationship between these psychological factors and cardiovascular diseaseexplains lead study author Dr. Giovanni Civieri, a researcher at the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Civieri and his colleagues studied data from 71,262 adults – with an average age of 49 years and 45% of them men – without previous heart attacks. Sixteen percent of the study group were taking medications for depression or anxiety — however, statistical adjustment for such medications did not significantly affect the results, Dr. Civieri explained. The time taken to develop new cardiovascular risk factors was measured over 10 years of follow-up, from December 2010 to December 2020.

The researchers concluded that:

• The 38% of all participants develop one new cardiovascular risk factorsuch as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes during follow-up.
• Participants previously diagnosed with anxiety or depression developed a new risk factor an average of six months earlier than those who did not have depression or anxiety.
• THE depression and anxiety increased risk of a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke; by about 35%.
• About the 40% of the relationship between depression and/or anxiety and major heart and stroke events was explained by faster development of CVD risk factors.
• People with a higher genetic predisposition to stress developed their first cardiovascular risk factor at a younger age (on average 1.5 years earlier than people without the genetic marker).

At second study, researchers investigated its effects accumulated stress on heart and brain health looking at responses to questionnaires completed by 2,685 adults without cardiovascular disease. Over a one-month period, the researchers combined generalized daily stress, psychosocial stress, financial stress, and perceived environmental stress into a score called a “summary stress score.”

Even after adjusting for risk factors, researchers found that higher cumulative stress:

• was related to 22% increased risk of atherosclerosis and with a 20% increased risk of total cardiovascular diseaseincluding coronary heart disease and heart failure,
• it was higher for women, for people aged 18-45 and for those with lower income and education, but also for those who reported racial/ethnic discrimination and lack of health insurance.
• were also related to high blood pressure, excess weight, physical inactivity and smoking.

The analysis also revealed that prolonged stress increased heart and brain health risk in two ways: by directly affecting physical well-being, as well as by increasing bad lifestyle behaviors such as smoking and being sedentary, which in turn lead to reduced cardiovascular health.