Anxiety is Bad for Your Heart… especially if You’re a Man

Hostility, anger, depression. Recent research has linked all of these emotions—when you experience them often—to heart disease.

Now researcjers are adding anxiety to the list.

Men who are often nervous and anxious have a 30 to 40 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than people who stay on an emotionally even keel. That's a significant increase.

Like hostility and anger, anxiety causes a number of physiological responses that have a negative effect on your heart. Anxiety raises your blood pressure, it increases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, and it makes your heart work harder. Over time, these symptoms all take their toll, leading you toward heart disease.

To ease anxiety, try one of these strategies:
• Take a brisk walk in the evening each day. During the walk, focus on letting go of the things you worry about that you cannot control.
• Join a yoga class or a guided meditation group. The social connections are very healthy for someone who feels anxious a lot of the time, and the activities are very relaxing.
• Retrain your thought process to be more positive. Try to catch yourself in the moment when you are having negative or worried thoughts. In that moment, find something that you are grateful for or some positive action that you can take. Or just recognize that the negative thoughts are not helpful and consciously reject them.

Reducing anxiety is somewhat of a trial and error process. Some strategies will work better than others for you. Keep at it until you find something that helps to calm you in those anxious moments.

What this recent research underscores is that your heart health and your mental health are intertwined. This means you shouldn't hesitate to take time to relax and enjoy yourself, that you shouldn't be embarrassed if you need help dealing with an emotional event, and that the support of friends and family is an important part of your overall health.

Stay well,
Danny Wallace