Stay Calm to Keep Heart Diseases at Bay: Study

People who are too depressed, worried and stressed out are at higher risk of developing serious heart diseases, according to a study.

Stress, depression and anxiety are known to increase blood pressure, head ache, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and suicidal tendencies. Time and again various researches have emphasized on the need to control mental aggravations and disturbances to avoid an array of health conditions and mental diseases. Experts from the University of Pittsburg discovered stressed out and hyper people are susceptible to atherosclerosis or hardening of heart arteries that restricts blood supply to the brain and causes heart attack.

Their study involved 157 healthy adults who were made to watch emotionally disturbing images and instructed to control their negative reactions. The participants' reactions and brain activity were recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans and scientists also measured the artery thickness to note their disease risk. The study also considered other variables such as age, gender, smoking habits and other risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

The scans revealed subjects had greater amount of brain activity while regulating negative emotions and increased production of interleukin-6, a pro-inflammatory cytokines and a marker of atherosclerosis. It was observed that these inflammatory chemicals thicken the carotid artery due to brain triggered stimuli when ever people try restricting their negative thoughts and worries.

"These new findings agree with the popular belief that emotions are connected to heart health," said Peter Gianaros, study author and assistant professor at the University of Pittsburg in a news release. "We think that the mechanistic basis for this connection may lie in the functioning of brain regions important for regulating both emotion and inflammation."

The authors urge people to avoid getting worked up and emotionally hyper by calming down and checking their stress levels to avoid disease progression and even death.

More information is available online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.