Worrying About Effects of Stress Doubles Risk of Heart Attack: Study

Worrying about the effects of stress on health can increase the risk of heart attack, according to a new study.

The study was based on over 7200 men and women enrolled in the U.K.'s Whitehall II study. Researchers found that people who felt stress was affecting their health in extreme ways had two times higher risk of a heart attack than people who didn't worry about being stressed. Even after adjusting other factors such as age, biological and psychological risks, the stressed lot were at some 50 percent higher chances of either suffering or dying from a heart attack.

Previous studies have shown that people who constantly worry about things tend to have higher risk of a stroke and back pains. A recent study had shown that people's reaction to stress affects health more than stress itself. In this study, researchers described people as being either "Velcro" or "Teflon" with Velcro people being more worried about a problem and feeling grumpy about it for a long time.

In the study, experts found a similar association between people's perception of stress and its effects on health.

"We found that the association we observed between an individual's perception of the impact of stress on their health and their risk of a heart attack was independent of biological factors, unhealthy behaviours and other psychological factors," said Dr Hermann Nabi, at Inserm (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale), Villejuif, France, according to a news release. Nabi is the first author of the study.

The study followed-up data of the respondents for over 18 years during which there were about 352 heart attacks or deaths due to cardiac arrests.

The study has several implications on studies being conducted on stress, experts said. The findings also show that doctors must consider patients' perception of stress while prescribing treatments for stress-related diseases.