The link between mental health and heart health

Mental health problems arise from the worries in our daily lives affect the way we feel, think and react. Such mental illness is effective to induce complexions, social isolation, lack of control and other negative emotions.

Researchers found that people with mental disorders are highly prone to cardiovascular diseases or stroke.

Apart from the biological factors, lifestyle changes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, mental illness conditions like stress, schizophrenia and others are also a factor that would result in heart problems like coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack, etc. It is clear that psychological and psychiatric factors are also correlated with heart diseases.

How do mental health problems affect the heart?

The psychological issues influence the health of our heart in a diverse manner. When we get depression, the negative feelings produce stress hormones which have their effect on the physical health as well as mental health.

On the other hand, people who are suffered from mental health disorders feel that they lost a precious thing and are afflicted with deep sorrow, suicidal thoughts, hopeless. In such conditions, they feel less motivated and develop abnormal habits like heavy smoking, consuming more alcohol. Likewise, they might skip important medications or avoid healthy diet. Some people develop a habit of overeating that ends with a high cholesterol level.

It is a well-known fact that high cholesterol in the blood is associated with heart attacks. The habits of smoking and drinking alcohol will cause blood clots that obstruct the blood flow to the heart and ends in various cardiovascular diseases.

In certain cases, the drugs and medications like antidepressants, psychoactive medication, antipsychotic medications also stimulate problems in the heart like heartburn or other heart diseases.

What are the psychological risk factors of heart diseases?

The psychiatric risk factors which have an adverse effect on heart health and cause coronary disease, cardiac arrest, stroke include:

1) Anxiety

The relation between anxiety disorders and heart diseases are not still clear. Anxiety is a condition which we encounter when we panic or stress of a while. Such prolonged anxiety will vary the level of stress that might end in panic disorders.

Psychiatrists reveal that the reaction of a person's body varies when he/she feel anxious. It puts an extra strain to the heart and causes chest pain at those times. The persistence or perpetuation of the anxiety or panic disorders damage the cardiovascular muscles.

Abnormal heart conditions correlated with anxiety are as follows: • Tachycardia (Rapid heartbeat) • Decreased heart rate variabilityrn• High blood pressure

2) Depression

The intense feeling of guilty without a reason or lose for a prolonged time will cause depression and make the sufferer feel hard to do regular activities. Statistics show that depressed persons have 20% more chances of affected with cardiovascular disorders than others.

Temporary sadness is a common thing but in contrast, the increased level of worrying with no reason will result in an unmanaged level of blood pressure. This leads to damage in arteries, irregular heartbeats, decreased heart variability and other cardiac risk factors. Thus the people with no history coronary artery disease are also affected with heart diseases.

Likewise, undepressed people who encounter heart diseases are at risk of being affected with depression.

3) Stress

Stress is a common thing most people are facing in daily lives. It is powerful to trigger psychological problems and various physical problems including cardiovascular disorders as the unbearable chronic feeling can modify the way blood clots.

Chronic stress is effective to compromise the body's immune system. Then the body cannot balance the hormones like adrenaline and cortisol which are secreted at higher levels when we stressed. The inflamed level of those hormones enters the bloodstream also lead to heart problems.

Is it possible to get rid of such psychiatric risk factors?

Yes. It is possible with managing the uncontrolled stress levels. With a positive outlook and optimistic mindset, we can overcome the health diseases associated with mental disorders. Learn to collaborate with others and handle negative situations with their bright sides. Such positive thoughts will help everyone to enjoy and avert the inflammatory hormones that lead to harmful cardiovascular events.

Diagnosing the depression or other mental health disorders in a person is really a tedious process. It is because both depression and heart disease share common symptoms like tiredness, lack of motivation. Hence the cardiologists question the patients to find whether they are suffered from psychological disorders.

Conclusion

Living with heart diseases can stimulate stress and depression. These psychological problems can obstruct heart disease recovery while regressing the mental health condition of the person.

It is recommended that people who have suffered from a heart attack or cardiovascular diseases should visit their cardiologist once for every three months to screen the depression levels.