How does stress affect the circulatory system

Medical researchers aren't sure exactly how does stress affect the circulatory system. For years it has been believed that people who are under a lot of stress will tend to have an increased risk of heart disease. But is there a direct relationship between stress and cardiovascular disease or stress and heart disease, how does stress increase risk, and can anything be done about it?

To answer these questions, lets take a look at the two different types of stress that people are familiar with i.e. physical stress and emotional stress.

Physical Stress

Physical stress includes exercise or other forms of physical exertion that may exert a considerable amount of demands on the heart. This physical stress is generally acknowledged to be good. In fact, the lack of physical stress may instead constitute a major risk factor for coronary artery disease. So this kind of “stress” is usually considered to be good for the heart – as long as the heart is normal.
Physical stress only becomes dangerous when there is already an underlying heart problem. In a person who has coronary artery disease, for instance, exercise can place demands on the heart muscle that the diseased coronary arteries cannot meet, and the heart becomes ischemic or deprived of oxygen. The ischemic heart muscle can then in turn causes either angina (chest pain), or a heart attack (actual death of cardiac muscle).

Emotional Stress

Emotional stress is generally the kind of stress people are talking about when they refer to stress causing heart disease. It is believed that emotional stress, if severe enough or chronic enough, is bad for you. Most even believe that this kind of stress can cause heart disease.

There is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that chronic emotional stress can be associated with heart disease and early death. Studies have shown fairly conclusively that people who have had recent major life changes (loss of a spouse or other close relative, loss of a job, moving to a new location) have a higher incidence of death. How does stress affect the circulatory system is best seen in people who are quick to anger or who display frequent hostility. These are the people that usually have an increased risk of high blood pressure or heart disease.

However, another school of thoughts believed that emotional stress is not the culprit that causes many of the physical illnesses related to stress including the circulatory disorders diagnosed and reported but rather, it is the reaction or response of a person to the emotional stress that will determine whether stress will result in the development of ill health or heart diseases. 

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