Stress in your life causes stress on your heart.  That stress can accelerate heart disease and can lead to a heart attack.

Depression and anxiety from stress tend to go hand-in-hand.  If you suffer from one of these mental disorders it's likely you're also affected by the other.  The latest medical research has added a third disorder to the mix, this time a physical one.  Over the last decade researchers have raised the possibility that depression and anxiety can set the stage for heart disease as well as complicate its outcome.

Stress is an inevitable part of life.  But just what is stress?  Simply put, stress refers to the body's response to change.  Of course, not all stress is bad and both good and bad stress affects different people in different ways.  However, continued ongoing stress can cause chronic anxiety and depression in some individuals. 

How does stress affect the heart?

• Anxiety and stress make your heart work harder. When you're under stress, your body's "fight-or-flight" response is triggered - your body tenses, your blood pressure rises, and your heart beats faster.
  
• Stress hormones may damage the lining of the arteries. When damage occurs, platelets in the blood adhere to the injured walls in an attempt to promote healing, resulting in a thickening of the arterial wall.
  
• Stress releases fatty acids and glucose into the bloodstream. These can be converted into natural fat and cholesterol creating deposits that decrease blood flow.
  
• Stress increases the likelihood that an individual will smoke, overeat, consume caffeinated beverages, self-medicate with drugs or alcohol and lead a sedentary lifestyle.  (According to research from the University of Maryland, smoking cigarettes or consuming excessive caffeine can raise the heart rate an average of 14 beats per minute. This effect, when combined with stress, can cause the heart rate to increase as much as 38 beats a minute.)
  
• Stress can interfere with the body's ability to repair itself, including slower repair of injuries to the heart.    

What causes stress?

Stress is part of every day living.  Driving.  Deadlines at work.  Family disagreements.  And, not all stress is negative.  A job promotion is equally exhilarating and anxiety-provoking. For some individuals, stress may serve as an adaptive response to important challenges, which can lead to outstanding performance and achievements. But, feeling too much for too long may have negative health consequences. Stress may arise from highly significant negative life events – like the loss of a job. Stressful life events have a clear association with heart disease. Chronic negative emotions have an insidious corrosive effect and may contribute to heart disease as well.  These kinds of stresses may be caused by:

• Lack of a sense of control over one's life
• Relentless time pressures
• Environments that contribute to low self esteem
• Changes in life style or environment that require adjustments
• Unsatisfactory social supports
• Poor health habits
• Poor coping skills
• Loss, including the biological vulnerabilities of aging

Illness itself is profoundly stressful.  For example, individuals who have had a heart attack and fail to adjust to their illness have higher death rates in the first six months after the event than their better-adjusted peers.  And, the demands of care giving for a loved one can be extraordinarily stressful.  Care givers often ignores their own physical and emotional needs, sacrificing themselves to their task.    

How is stress measured?

It's not easy to measure the effect of life stresses on any given individual's health or to predict how that individual will respond to it.  However, scientists have developed a number of instruments to help physicians and mental health professionals rate factors such as an individual's sense of powerlessness, hopelessness, hostility, anger, life event strains and coping skills. 

It's difficult for an average individual to identify how much stress he or she has.  If you believe you have stress or have unexplained symptoms you should talk to your doctor about it. 
  
Common symptoms of stress and depression: