You see it in movies all the time: Someone gets upset, clutches his or her chest and collapses from a heart attack. Not only can stress cause a heart attack—also known as myocardial infarction—but it can also be the culprit behind a heart-attack-like condition called takotsubo cardiomyopathy, otherwise known as broken heart syndrome.
Why we feel stressed
Stress is the body’s response to danger. In early humans, that danger was almost always physical. After hearing the growl of a predator, the sympathetic nervous system would be flooded with hormones, causing the heart to beat faster, rapid breathing and increased oxygen delivery to the brain. This response allowed humans to run faster or fight harder when threatened.
These days you don’t have to worry about hungry saber-toothed tigers, but your body doesn’t know that. Anything can cause stress. “Stress is a mind phenomenon,” says Thirupathi Reddy, MD, a cardiologist with Regional Medical Center of San Jose. “It’s more of an internal thing for a person, rather than external. External [stressors] are always there to stress you out, but it’s all about how you deal with it.”
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How anger affects your heart
A heart attack occurs when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart is blocked, depriving the heart of oxygen and leading to the death of its muscle tissue. The most common reason for a blood flow blockage is a clot, which is often the result of a buildup of plaque in the arteries. When a piece of plaque breaks off from the artery wall (a process called rupturing), blood cells form around it and the clot gets stuck in the artery, blocking blood flow.
Stress and heart attacks
When stress is present, your body is flooded with hormones called catecholamines such as adrenaline, says Dr. Reddy. “When you have high levels of catecholamines, the [blood] clotting mechanisms ramp up a bit and the heart beats faster,” he says. “Your heart is working in low gear, trying to handle a lot of load. If there’s some plaque buildup in your coronary arteries, all these together can lead to plaque rupture.”
A 2016 study of more than 12,400 people published in Circulation found that 13.6 percent had been physically active and 14.4 percent had been angry or upset an hour before their heart attack symptoms started. The researchers noted that both physical exertion and being upset or angry more than doubled the risk of heart attack. When combined, the risk was three times greater.
Can you die from a broken heart?
There’s another condition caused by stress that has similar symptoms to a heart attack. It’s most commonly called stress cardiomyopathy or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, named after a Japanese octopus pot, shaped like a heart.
“About a third of the time, takotsubo cardiomyopathy is provoked by a strong emotion or some horrific circumstance,” says Lyndon Box, MD, an interventional cardiologist with West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, Idaho. “After this event, the person experiences the same symptoms of a heart attack, the same chest pain, difficulty breathing and nausea.”
Even some of the diagnostic tests, like the electrocardiogram, will look the same as a heart attack, but an angiogram will show no blockage in the arteries. Although the arteries are normal, the heart function is weakened and portions of the heart are not contracting the way they should, says Dr. Box. Healthcare providers aren’t sure why, but the theory is that a stress signal from the brain damages either the heart or the arteries.
Stress cardiomyopathies are less common than heart attacks. Women between the ages of 50 to 70 are the most common patients, Box says. It’s unlikely that a person will die from broken heart syndrome and most people make a full recovery with the aid of beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors.
Easy ways to manage stress
Some research has shown that yoga, breathing exercises and meditation can help people cope with stress. A simple stress-reducing breathing exercise you can do anywhere is inhale for a count of four, hold for the count of four and exhale for the count of four. There are also some detailed 12-step programs for managing stress.