I am 38 a 38 year old female I have suffered from anxiety disorder for many years. I was recently admitted to the hospital for a 2nd bout of DVT. That is when I found out I need a pacemaker. My blood pressure was 79/35 and heart rate of 38. My question is, do you think stress and anxiety could cause this. I have been under a tremendous amount lately. I will go to the cardiologist soon, but would like to learn more before I go, so I will know what kinds of ?? to ask.
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Q: Anxiety stress and your heart
Answers (2)
4/25/08 8:22am
You've asked a question that psychologists and others have been wrestling with for years. There is no easy answer. It is quite possible that your physical condition has developed independently of your anxiety disorder. However, consistent levels of stress might be a risk factor because stress can affect the blood clotting mechanism. Stress may also have an indirect effect such as increasing blood pressure, decreasing your level of exercise, increasing alcohol, smoking, eating unhealthy foods and so on.
As far as the individual is concerned much more is known about risk factors, but to say that a psychological condition is the single cause of an illness, remains elusive.
Hope this helps.
I wish you well with your treatment.
Jerry
4/25/08 2:20pm
Hi Crissy2112,
Online sites are great resources for information when seeing your doctor about managing your care. Welcome to Health Central, one of the best!!
We have a cardiac section that you can access here. While I don't think your anxiety directly caused your issues, there is no doubt that anxiety is taxing on the body and can have an adverse affect on your health. That being said, there is an article here that suggests that panic and anxiety attacks could affectually make heart disease issues more prevalent. You can read the entire article here, but here is an excerpt:
"After adjusting for all those factors, the researchers found that full-blown panic attacks were associated with a fourfold higher risk of heart disease, nearly twice the risk of stroke, and a 75 percent increase in risk of death from any cause, compared to women who'd experienced no panic attacks. Women who'd had limited panic attacks fared somewhat better. The adjusted risk of heart disease was 65 percent higher, stroke risk was more than doubled, and all-cause mortality was increased by 34 percent."
Sobering odds! The article goes on to say: "Negative emotional states and psychiatric symptoms can be related to adverse medical outcomes," said Smoller, who's also assistant vice chairman of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. Panic attacks may be having a direct effect on cardiovascular health -- anxiety, panic and other negative emotional states have been related to changes in heart rhythm and changes in cardiac blood flow in previous studies. It may be that stress hormones and other components of the 'fight-or-flight' reactions that accompany panic directly impact the cardiovascular system."
A user named jmatt73 had an interesting experience. He is young like you and has had anxiety for years as well and now is dealing with atrial fibrillation. While his experience is different from yours, you might think of questions to ask your doctor after reading jmatt73's experiences.
Hope you find something useful here. Please stay in touch and let us know how you are doing!
Vicki M
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