Stress and the cardiovascular system

When we encounter a stressful situation, we usually feel our heart pounding. This is one of the mechanisms put in place by our body to respond to stress. For a mild acute stress, this increased heart rate and blood pressure is a transient state and everything comes back to normal quite fast. However, if stress becomes chronic, these responses are constantly activated and cause wear and tear to our body. On the long-term, chronic stress can lead to the development of cardiovascular pathologies, such as coronary heart disease, stroke or atrial fibrillation. In addition, stress can also triggers potential risky behaviors for the heart, such as smoking, alcohol intake, junk food and reduced physical activity.

Many factors can influence the effects of stress and the development of diseases. It has been shown that people who experienced severe childhood stress are at higher risk of future cardiovascular pathologies. On the other hand, adult stress might be an important disease trigger in susceptible persons, for example with family history of heart disease, obesity, hypertension or diabetes. Intense acute stress such as natural disaster, death of a close person or a diagnosis of a serious illness, have also been associated with increases in cardiovascular events in the short-term after the event.