Shreyas Talpade overexerted himself for 28 years before his heart attack: How does chronic stress damage the heart?

Nobody can ignore some sort of stress in today’s competitive world and the need to fulfil expectations. The question is what is your coping mechanism and how you are dealing with it. Dr Nishith Chandra, Principal Director, Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi, says, “The human body is equipped to handle stressful situations. It has a natural mechanism to respond to emergency or crisis situations, what we call the fight and flight response. We get rapid heartbeats and goosebumps. But then they subside when the moment passes. But if this mechanism is constantly pressed into action, it can harm you. Slowly over time, acute stress turns into chronic stress.”

This means that elevated levels of hormones like endorphins, cortisol and adrenaline from long-term stress can increase blood cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar and blood pressure. It also ups inflammation in the blood vessels. “Imagine living with high risk factors moment to moment. That’s what chronic stress does. It thickens the blood, raises blood pressure and constricts the arteries. With so much stress and strain, even the smallest of arterial plaque ruptures, causing clotting,” says Dr Chandra.

A study in 2021 showed how about 5.8 per cent of test subjects, who were tracked for 11.2 years, experienced cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes with chronic stress. The risk of these events climbed by 90 per cent with doubling of cortisol levels in their urine tests regardless of whether or not they had other risk factors like hypertension, smoking, obesity, diabetes, or being physically inactive. The correlation of two hormones, cortisol and dopamine, with hypertension was stronger for younger adults than for people 60 years and older, the study found.

HOW TO TRACK STRESS?

Stress is an inseparable part of a deadline-driven world. Therefore, says Dr Chandra, “While those with a family history and cardiomyopathy need to be vigilant from their 20s, any 30-year-old should get an annual check-up done, particularly post-COVID, when the heart attack risk has clearly gone up. Just do the ECG, treadmill, echocardiogram, blood cholesterol and sugar checks annually.” He even suggests regular checkups with the GP for addressing and monitoring red flags and then consulting a cardiologist.

HOW TO SIMMER DOWN STRESS

“Most of my patients say they do not have time for themselves. People should realise that jobs and the insecurities and competition that come with them is one aspect but health is supreme. Without it, keeping the job would be a bigger problem,” says Dr Chandra.

He says even 15 to 20 minutes of daily physical exercise is enough to keep heart disease away. “You don’t have to be a gym rat for that.” For relieving mental stress, there’s yoga, meditation, recreation but sleeping properly is perfectly doable. “The cells in the arteries and blood vessels need time to repair and heal. So even a routine workout or working late can become a trigger for a heart attack because it comes after years of poor sleep of not more than four or five hours,” explains Dr Chandra.