In today’s busy world, people’s lives have become significantly busy and monotonous. In this rat race, they forget and don’t get enough time to spend on themselves. However, this leads to the neglect of one’s physical and mental health in the longer run. Most of us go through or experience bad days, hardships, and struggles that take a toll on our mental health. This affects our sleep, appetite, weight, blood pressure and other certain physiological aspects.
Psychologists often talk about the mind–body connection, explaining how mental health issues and processes can impact body functions. Many health conditions involve one or more independent psychological factors present. Among them, the most significant and common health condition i.e. cardiac or heart health is seen to have psychological factors like stress, anxiety, and depression as underlying causal factors.
Stress is a part of everyone’s life. It is one of the most common psychological issues experienced by most of the population. Stress can come from the environment, family, work and other factors like everyday obligations and pressures that make us feel out of control.
Our thoughts and feelings signal the body to activate the “fight or flight” response. For example, if you face a danger like when you encounter a tiger, that stress causes the brain to prepare the body to escape from danger, preparing when you need to run away from a tiger. When the danger is over, the body should return to its normal “rest and digest” system and energy is redirected back to the body.
People experiencing depression, anxiety, stress, and even PTSD over a long period may experience certain physiologic effects on the body, such as increased cardiac reactivity (e.g., increased heart rate and blood pressure), and reduced blood flow to the heart.
Heart disease is another potential stress-related problem. The cycle of stress or having the risk of heart disease can be the ways of responding to stress and poor health behaviours like–
- Smoking, drinking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol
- Overeating
- Lack of physical activity
- Unhealthy diet
- Being overweight
The vicious cycle includes a person with heart disease, having some or the other independent psychological factor like anxiety, and depression. However, people having anxiety or depression tend to proportionally have heart disease. The cycle is such that a person with a heart condition is seen to have some or the other underlying psychological factors like depression, stress and vice versa.
But chronic stress can also affect your heart indirectly. When you’re worried, you tend to sleep poorly. You’re also less likely to exercise, make healthy food choices, or watch your weight. All of these lifestyle changes can put your heart health at risk.
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Managing stress is good for your health and well-being. Negative psychological health/mental health is associated with an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. But positive psychological health is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and death. Psychological intervention with cardiac patients reduces psychological pain—severe anxiety, hostility, and depression—and thus, improves the quality of life as well. Successful psychological treatment of cardiac patients has resulted in more satisfying lives, not only for patients but also for their families.
The author is a Guwahati-based Psychologist. Views expressed are personal.
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