Stress is part and parcel of everyone's daily life, but high levels of stress could lead to emotional, physical, and psychological problems. Physical problems include chest pains, high blood pressure, heart diseases, and irregular heartbeats. Things that cause you to get stressed are known as stressors. Medical researchers do not know for sure how exactly stress and heart attack risk are related, though stress can be put you at a higher risk of getting high blood pressure or cholesterol problems.
Chronic stress could also put you at risk of elevated levels of adrenalin and cortisol, which are stress hormones. Studies also show that stress could change the way your blood clots and that could elevate the risk of a heart attack.
Stressors could be stimulated due to minor or major changes in life, and identifying the reason behind your stress could help you manage your stress better. Stress and heart attack can be avoided by trying by avoiding situations that cause you to worry too much.
Some of the common causes of stress are crowds, daily hassles, death of a loved one or friend, illness affecting you or a member of your family, bad sleeping habits, financial concerns, irregular eating habits, legal problems, perfectionism, personal problems in a relationship, pregnancy, pushing oneself too hard, relocation, retirement, starting a new job, unemployment, and work overload.
Signs or symptoms to watch out for include an overpowering sense of anxiety similar to a panic attack, being sick, coughing, chest pain that is usually felt towards the centre of the chest and a feeling of tightness or pressure in the chest, feeling sick, light headedness, pain in various other parts of the body including your arms, abdomen, back, jaw or neck, shortness of breath or wheezing.
Doctors may conduct an exercise stress test, or simply put, a stress test, which could be any of the following: exercise electrocardiogram, graded exercise test, stress ECG, or treadmill test. All these tests will let your doctor know how your heart reacts to exertion. Blood pressure and heart rates are watched closely during these tests, which are usually conducted by asking you to pedal a stationary bike or walk on the treadmill. The types of stress tests include adenosine or dobutamine stress test, nuclear stress test, stress echocardiogram, or the treadmill stress test.