14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers in the United States claim to have figured out why it is that people who experience chronic stress have an increased risk to suffer either a heart attack or a stroke, and argue that their findings could help lower the incidence of such episodes.
The specialists explain that, according to their investigations into the matter at hand, chronic stress not only causes the body to release more adrenaline than it normally would, but also acts on the immune system.
More precisely, they say that it pushes the immune system into overdrive, in the sense that it triggers the production of one too many white blood cells. Although white blood cells are intended to fight diseases, they can sometimes negatively affect an individual.
In a paper in the journal Nature Medicine, Matthias Nahrendorf with the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and fellow researchers explain that, in the case of individuals whose blood vessels sport plaque on the inside, they can cause open wounds.
The open wounds are the result of inflammation and subsequent ruptures, and the fact that, when they form, platelets and clotting proteins arrive at the spot to fill them up can translate into the formation of clots. It is these clots that lead to heart attacks and strokes.
“When atherosclerosis-prone mice were subjected to chronic stress, accelerated (blood cell production) promoted plaque features associated with vulnerable lesions that cause (heart attack) and stroke in humans,” says Dr. Matthias Nahrendorf.
Furthermore, “Taken together, these data provide further evidence of the hematopoietic system’s role in cardiovascular disease, and elucidate a direct biological link between chronic variable stress and chronic inflammation, a general concept with implications beyond atherosclerosis.”
The hypothesis that chronic stress ups heart attack and stroke risk by pushing the immune system into overdrive is backed up by data obtained while assessing the overall wellbeing of nearly 30 individuals with especially stressful jobs, Daily Mail informs.
Thus, the scientists behind this research project claim to have documented an increase in the production of white blood cells in as many as 29 medical staff who worked in an intensive care unit and therefore experienced stress on a regular basis.
In light of these findings, the researchers argue that it might be possible to lower the incidence of heart attack and stroke episodes in people experiencing chronic stress by developing drugs that work by keeping a person's white blood cell count in check. Needless to say, taking steps towards preventing the accumulation of plaque in blood vessels can also help.