Doctors have long known stress is bad for the body, but a new study backs it up.
It says work-related strain can put people at risk for atrial fibrillation — an irregular, rapid heart rhythm that doesn’t always come with symptoms.
KERA’s Sam Baker talks with Dr. Brian Le, a Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiologist with Texas Health Dallas and Texas Health Physicians Group, about how stress could lead to A-Fib.
Stress is bad for your body in many ways. It activates the autonomic nervous system and increases catecholamines - basically, adrenaline. And the adrenaline can lead to high blood pressure. It activates other systems in your body that are bad for your progression. It hardens the blood vessels, it increases blockage, and this chronic stress can lead your heart to beat out a rhythm called atrial fibrillation.
The study reviewed information from more than 5900 people over 18 years. Work-strained-related stressors put high percentages of workers at risk for A-Fib, but still not all. Why some people and not others?
Because, you know, A-fib is partly environmental, but it's also partly genetics. And it depends on how you deal with that stress. And so in that study, looked at the type of stressors that you deal with.
One is the demand control model where you have a lot of stress on you, but you can't modify that stress. You don't have the ability to make decisions to make the stress go away.
And the second part of that study is the effort-reward imbalance part, where you're not being recognized for work you've done which causes more stress to the body.
I would ask if there's a profile of sorts for this, or maybe underlying conditions, but it just depends upon the person?
Yeah. It also goes back to how do you take care of yourself as well. In the study, you know, people were mildly obese. The body mass index was about 25.5. So, they're just overweight but not massive over beef. For the most part, these people were healthy without significant heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other things.
So, it's important to note that just by myself, over 18 years can increase your incidence of age for ablation, independent of some of the underlying conditions that people manifest as they get older.
It sounds as if there are steps you can take to avoid work strain-related AFib.
There are many ways. The first that should be addressed is how you can modify that stress at work? Are there mechanisms in place such as recognition of awards, good work being done, or ways to alleviate stress, but giving you some input into the decisions being made at the workplace outside of modifying the work environment.
There are things you can do, such as, exercising to get rid of the catecholamines, the adrenaline. So, when you come home, when you exercise, you basically get rid of some of the strategies that help you to accommodate by getting rid of the negative energy.
Other things you can do such as, meditation, Pilates, some type of relaxation techniques to help your body and your mind overcome the stress.
And then, of course, you know, having social interactions with other people is another way of getting rid of the excessive adrenaline or the burden you carry from your workplace.
Lastly, lifestyle changes: Make sure you're not overweight, eat a healthy diet, and avoid certain stimulants that can increase further. Catecholamines such as energy drinks, high caffeine, and drugs that are stimulants to the body. Those things can help to reduce stress load and decrease your incidence of atrial fibrillation.
RESOURCES:
