2024-03-20 05:15:00
First of all, there is stress and… stress! In its acute form, it is generally associated with a particularly strong and brutal emotion. Whether it is caused by an exceptional circumstance, such as an accident.
It can also be about episodes of everyday life experienced intensely: an argument or even a strong emotion felt in a football stadium after a goal.
An example: during the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany, the rate of heart attacks among German viewers was multiplied by almost three on the evenings of the national team’s matches!
Acute stress and chronic stress
This acute stress “can cause a heart attack, especially if it occurs in an already weakened body, in a person at high risk or who has already had a heart problem,” recalls the FFC.
Beyond that, this stress can also be chronic, linked to a professional activity under pressure or personal life (illness of a loved one, couple in difficulty, etc.).
However, this chronic stress is well known to promote or even worsen high blood pressure, which tends to increase the work of the heart and therefore fatigue it.
The white blood cells involved
Beyond that, in this stress-heart link, everything starts, unsurprisingly, from the brain. Precisely from the cerebral amygdala which, in cases of stress, tends to stimulate the production of white blood cells by the spinal cord.
Once in the arteries, these globules will tend to accumulate until they potentially form atherosclerotic plaques and thus increase the risk of cardiovascular events (atherosclerosis being the primary risk factor for cardiovascular diseases).
All this against a backdrop of increased heart rate and blood pressure.
As the FFC points out, however, “stress is not inevitable”. The right reflexes to adopt? Practicing physical activity for at least 30 minutes every day. This is undoubtedly one of the main anti-stress levers.
But also the adoption of a balanced diet. Without forgetting of course stopping smoking. Enough to help regulate this stress by engaging in a virtuous circle!
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