Stress is something that is in our lives and with which we live almost daily. Stress is the way our body and mind react when faced with a difficult situation, whether watching a horror movie, losing control of the car or facing an armed robbery. In short, we have episodes of stress when faced with a threat or challenge. Sometimes stress is caused by situations that are not negative. For example, when we receive an award and have to give a talk in public we can feel stress.
It is, therefore, a reality with which we live, but when it accumulates it can affect our physical and mental health. A high level of stress can negatively affect the heart. Everyone reacts to stress differently, and that reaction can trigger serious health problems, including heart disease. Stress increases blood pressure, inflammation in the body, cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. It can also cause arrhythmias.
A common reaction of our body when experiencing a significant level of stress is to notice a feeling of tiredness and, at the same time, feel irritable. It can also include muscle aches, headaches, back problems and continued stomach pain. Stress can also cause problems falling asleep. If stress remains, the human body lives for days or weeks in a state of acceleration, which can cause major health problems.
Stages of excessive and generalized stress usually have direct effects on health. The most frequent are the increase in blood pressure and also cholesterol. In addition, being stressed usually leads to some negative habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol excessively, eating heavily, and stopping frequent physical exercise.
Stress must be monitored because it can enhance other diseases and harm the heart, as the results of some studies suggest. Conversely, there may also be a correlation between cardiovascular involvement and stress. When a patient recovers from a heart attack he is more likely to feel depressed or stressed than the average healthy population.
Symptoms of stress can be confused with those of a heart attack and include:
Pulse acceleration
Reducing the stress level is possible. The first necessary measure is to identify the specific causes and once this exercise has been done, it is time to act to try to combat these external causes and make them disappear, as far as possible. If we can eliminate them, we must work with a psychologist to learn how to prevent stress from paralyzing us again in the future. It is important to work on the mind, but we must also focus on the physical aspect. Getting into the habit of doing sports helps reduce stress, but there are other guidelines to follow: do not smoke or consume caffeine, follow a balanced diet, keep your weight under control by avoiding overweight and obesity, and learn relaxation techniques. The use of drugs is only advisable in cases of acute stress. It is important to differentiate stress from anxiety attacks because they have to be addressed differently.
