{"id":89862,"date":"2025-09-28T00:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/89862\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:54:12","slug":"how-stress-anxiety-depression-and-other-mental-health-issues-put-your-heart-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/89862\/","title":{"rendered":"How stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues put your heart at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Having anxiety or other chronic mental health disorders is now an established independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death globally.<\/p>\n<p>The traditional \u201cbig five\u201d risks for poor heart health are having high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3169245\/know-your-family-medical-history-your-health-could-depend?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">family history<\/a> of heart disease and smoking.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">To now add mental health disorders is a paradigm shift, says UK cardiologist Dr Boon Lim.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Depression and anxiety, often stress-induced, are linked to a 30 to 50 per cent higher incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events, Lim says, \u201cand stress-related disorders such as PTSD show particularly strong associations with early myocardial infarction, arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dr Boon Lim is a London-based consultant cardiologist. Photo: Dr Boon Lim\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/70c5f54e-0aee-4e4c-96f2-862da43befdc_229ae51b.jpg\" title=\"Dr Boon Lim is a London-based consultant cardiologist. Photo: Dr Boon Lim\"\/>Dr Boon Lim is a London-based consultant cardiologist. Photo: Dr Boon Lim<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Managing stress is key to heart health, Lim says. Unchecked, it can lead to physical inactivity, poor diet, disrupted sleep and low medication adherence \u2013 all factors that increase inflammation that can trigger heart problems.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Stress, and other forms of mental ill health, increase the production of cortisol and catecholamines \u2013 hormones and neurotransmitters that include adrenaline. These play a role in the body\u2019s \u201cfight or flight\u201d response and are elevated when the body is under pressure. They can cause heart rate and blood pressure to rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having anxiety or other chronic mental health disorders is now an established independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[291,58597,58595,3083,8339,8855,5050,7229,25858,10503,164,2675,18,135,138,11460,4202,58596,8346,19,99,17,58594,6271,173,58593],"class_list":{"0":"post-89862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-assisted-robots","10":"tag-ai-assisted-surgical-robots","11":"tag-anxiety","12":"tag-arrhythmia","13":"tag-atherosclerosis","14":"tag-cardiomyopathy","15":"tag-cholesterol","16":"tag-coronary-artery-disease","17":"tag-covid","18":"tag-depression","19":"tag-diabetes","20":"tag-eire","21":"tag-health","22":"tag-heart-failure","23":"tag-heart-health","24":"tag-hong-kong","25":"tag-hong-kong-college-of-cardiology","26":"tag-hypertension","27":"tag-ie","28":"tag-inflammation","29":"tag-ireland","30":"tag-mental-ill-health","31":"tag-smoking","32":"tag-stress","33":"tag-world-heart-day"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}