Battling Heart and Stroke

Increase in blood pressure has been associated with psychological and emotional stress. But how does stress in the job affect blood pressure? This has been the subject of numerous research studies over the years but the results are conflicting. In this post, I am reviewing 3 studies on 3 different types of workers in Japan.

 Managers

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Had a bad day at the office? What about getting a cat to de-stress? Owning a cat may even benefit your heart, according to a 20-year “feline lifeline” study by researchers at the University of Minnesota Stroke Center.

Examining data on 4,435 adults, the researchers found that the relative risk of death from heart attack was 40 percent higher for those who had never owned a cat. Specifically, 3.4 percent of cat owners died from a heart attack during the course of the study versus 5.8 percent of non-owners.

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Major sports events are fun - but also dangerous for the heart and the blood vessels of the fans. I have just lived through another major sports tournament this year - the European Football Championships held in Switzerland (my current place of residence) and Austria .

Two years ago, it was the World Football Championships (known as THE WORLD CUP) in Germany (my place of residence then) that I could experience.

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You’ve heard it before. “Laughter is the best medicine.” Especially for heart disease and stroke.

Here are the latest research results showing the positive emotions have positive effects on the your heart and vascular system.

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In the wake of last week’s catastrophic earthquake in China, we can only imagine the trauma that the victims and their families went through - trauma that will probably stay with them for the rest of their lives. With such  trauma comes psychological stress and with increased stress comes elevated cardiovascular risk.

Several research studies have investigated the effect of acute stressors such as catastrophes and natural disasters on the cardiovascular well-being of the victims and people in the vicinity. A review article by Dr. JE Dimsdale of the University of California at San Diego shows that many of these studies observed an increased cardiovascular risk after earthquakes.

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