According to a study, depression, stress and hostility can lead to increasing chances of stroke in older people. Out of the three, hostility was the cause for doubling the chances of stroke or a mini stroke, called transient ischaemic attack or TIA. At the same time stress was responsible for increasing risk of TIA and stroke by as much as 59% while chances of depression leading to such risks is 86%.
Findings of Research
These facts were the finding of a research by scientists on 6,700 people in the age group of 45-84 years, wherein they were given a questionnaire to judge the stress, hostility and depression levels in their lives. The startling revelation of this study was that in a period of eleven years, people in this group suffered forty-eight TIAs and 147 strokes. This study shows that apart from normal risk factors like blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol, these psychological aspects also have an important role to play in aggravating health problems in older people.
For this study, hostility was defined as one form of negative approach to viewing the world and to measure it cynicism of people was assessed. Similarly, stress was determined in five areas comprising of health issues of family members, personal health, capacity to do any job, finances and relationships.
How Stress Augments Heart Disease Risk?
Stress tends to result in increasing your blood pressure, make you overeat, smoke and do less amount of exercises or stop altogether, thereby increasing your risks of having a heart disease.
Chronic stress can lead to release of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline in the body, and modify how blood clots, increasing chances of heart diseases. Few of the reasons, why stress occurs, would include retirement, overload of work, death of someone, relocation, financial problems, illness and legal issues.
Signs of Stress
Some common signs that you are under a lot of stress are in the form of emotional, physical, behavioral and cognitive signs, which you should not ignore. The solution is to slow down and take a break to recover from it.
Let us now look at some of the symptoms and signs of stress.
Physical Signs:
Clenched jaws, dizziness, sweaty palms, racing heart, stomach upset, weight loss and headache
Mental Signs:
Indecisiveness, lack of concentration, sadness and negative thinking, together with poor memory and forgetfulness
Emotional Signs:
Mood swings, anger, nervousness, anxiety, negative thinking and irritability
Behavioral Signs: Compulsive eating, frequent job changes, critical attitude and increased consumption of alcohol
Signs of Depression
Some of the common signs of depression are:
- Feeling hopeless as well as helpless
- Feeling of restlessness and guilt
- Loss of interest in hobbies
- Tiredness at all times
- Difficulty in concentrating
- Poor decision making powers
- Forgetfulness
- Lack of sleep
- Loss of appetite
- Suicidal tendency
- Headaches, aches digestive problems and cramps
Depression and Heart Diseases
Similar to stress, depression is also one of the major causes for heart diseases. Some of the reasons that tell us why those who are more depressed tend to suffer from heart diseases are:
- Such people do not exercise, drink alcohol and smoke.
- If there is already some type of heart disease, depressed people are less likely to continue the medication.
- Depression brings with stress, which may cause plaque formation within the arteries.
- Depression can cause higher production of fatty acids and free radicals, thereby causing damage to blood vessel linings.
Summary:
Depression and hostility together are major factors causing heart diseases in senior citizens. People generally tend to look at only the physical but it seems that they will have to pay equal importance to these psychological factors as well.