BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Experts say there is healthy stress, and then stress that can kill you — quite literally.
Heart health can be directly correlated to stress levels throughout the day.
Anyone undergoing a lot of stress can have serious health effects, especially concerning the heart. Small stressors can build up, and have large consequences.
Nirav Nitin Desai, MD, Chief of Cardiology and Cathep at Adventist Health Bakersfield said,
“Stress increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure. All these things are generally related to increased levels of cortisol levels that we get, which is a stress response, almost like the fight or flight response that we see.”
This is where we see that the body keeps the score.
“If that continues on over and over again, it has a significant detrimental effect to the heart in particular increasing our risk of high blood pressure. Also, high levels of stress have been shown to cause new blockages to form, such as what we call a few plaque ruptures, which is why we see a lot of heart attacks on Monday morning because of people getting stressed out about going to work.”
Experts say that we have to take care of our bodies first. Everybody has a different way of doing things.
