Stress and Heart Health: Understanding the Connection and How to Manage It

Stress is a common part of normal life, it is something that you cannot inherently remove from your daily life. Chronic stress can affect your body and specifically your heart. By understanding your heart, stress and how it applies to your heart health, as well as identifying ways to measure and manage stress, we hope to make your life healthier and happier.

How Stress Affects the Heart

Stress causes the release of hormones which prepares the body for a “fight or flight” situation using adrenaline or cortisol. If put in sharp conditions, the response is beneficial, however, providing lasting stress can lead to damage to your heart and cardiovascular system while being harmful.

Causes mental and physical problems for many people such as increasing the heart rate which leads to varying degrees of high blood pressure. Stress will widen the heart internally thus placing people prone to heart disease at an risk. Putting off hasty decisions will stop you from doing unneeded things like excessive smoking or drinking. You can eat unhealthy food loaded with unhealthy ingredients. These are all the ways stress affects heart health.

Recognizing the connection is the first part in managing stress for better heart health.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Stress

An ideal method for managing stress is through Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is a form of therapy that can assist individuals with identifying and changing cognitive processes that develop negative beliefs that contribute to stress. CBT will be beneficial in addressing prevention to the underlying cause of any stress while learning coping processes to avoid any negative and or harmful effects of stress from the body including the heart. Through CBT, individuals can learn to assess what things trigger stress, how to respond to it, and develop more reasonable responses. The potential benefits of reducing stress can assist with better emotional states, improved health outcomes and overall improved heart health. 

Breathing Exercises for Stress Reduction

Another quick and easy method of stress management is deep breathing! By doing breathing exercises, it can help activate one’s body’s relaxation response which helps to calm one’s nervous system and decrease the physiological effects of stress.One popular breathing technique is diaphragmatic breathing, or deep belly breathing:Sit in a comfortable position or lie down in a quiet area.Put one hand on your chest, and the other on your abdomen.Take a deep breath, inhaling through your nose, and feel your abdomen rise as you breathe in air through your abdomen.Exhale slowly through your mouth and let your abdomen fall.Continue doing this for several minutes, focusing on your breath.

Managing Stress for Heart Health

While stress is unavoidable, there are many ways to effectively manage it and protect your heart health:

1. Exercise Regularly:

Exercise reduces stress hormones and stimulates the release of endorphins, your body’s natural happy chemicals. Strive for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week.

2. Prioritize Sleep:

Stress can interfere with sleep, and not sleeping enough compounds bad stress. Try to sleep well (7-9 hours), which can help reduce stress and be good for your heart health

3. Stay Connected:

Sometimes we may find that social support is a helpful coping method for stress. When this is true you can call a friend, family member, or social support group, and share how you are feeling. Utilize these social connections while able to cope.

4. Mindfulness and Meditation:

Being in the current moment can help decrease our stress. Mindfulness and meditation stress this thinking. Spending a few minutes each day being mindful; which can help preserve your heart health.

5. Seek Professional Help:

If your perceived stress has affected your overall health over some time or feels debilitating, then try and see either a medical doctor, or mental health counselor…they can help you work through stress, in a supportive ongoing approach that can benefit both your physical health, and overall mental health.

Conclusion

In conclusion, by managing the implications of stress you can impact your mind, emotional health not to mention a healthier heart. If you find your stress is overwhelming, at least start with the important first step of speaking with a licensed healthcare provider and your smaller and maybe bigger strategies will emerge. Your heart will thank you.