Keep Your Heart Healthy

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 490
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This is one of those stories in which science and common sense seem to overlap. It should not surprise us that anxiety may be a contributing factor to heart problems. We've seen all too many movies and TV plots where the victim gets all stressed and, clutching his or her chest, then falls over moaning, My heart is finally giving up my ghost. or words to that effect. Anyway, there's new research suggesting the way people are treated if they have an anxiety disorder may change their chances of survival. So, before we continue, here's a little challenge for you. Just what do you think the relationship is between anxiety and heart attacks?

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is increasingly severe worry without any specific cause. So, before you have a stroke or heart attack, the link is less clear. How are we to decide whether you have heart disease because you smoke, or are overweight, or have a poor level of health and never exercise, or have a general level of anxiety in your life? But once you have an incident, this will naturally give you a real health problem to worry about. To that extent, the GAD stops being generalized ...
... and becomes the entirely understandable fear of death from a further incident. Now there really is a choice to be made by the doctors treating you to decide what balance to strike in the treatment for the heart and the anxiety problems. But before the incident. . .

Recent research out of Holland followed just over one-thousand people whose health was less than perfect, but all had a stable heart. Of them 10% had GAD. Over time, the risk of heart attacks was 75% higher for those with GAD. This is not the first time research has shown anxiety as a major contributing cause of strokes and heart attacks but, because of the problems of identifying cause and effect, the results are not yet scientifically convincing. You first have to eliminate all the other contributing factors. Nevertheless, if you are young and have GAD, it may be worth having a full health check-up including your cardiovascular system. Just because these scientists are not convinced does not mean you should not protect yourself against the possibility.

In this, Xanax will play an important role. As one of the best anti-anxiety drugs on the market, it will bring down the immediate level of anxiety. Remember this is a short-term measure to bring your body into a better balance and improve your quality of life. More importantly, it will give the doctors a chance to take blood pressure and other measures before and after reducing the stress. This can be a vital indicator of the actual contribution being made by the anxiety to your health problems. But, because Xanax can be habit-forming, you should not rely on it to provide preventative treatment against heart disease. There are other ways of achieving that result and your doctor will advise. To become dependent on Xanax is not a good price to pay for reducing the threat of heart disease. You should look at counseling and therapy as one option, and the range of other drugs available to control blood pressure, etc. You may also have to consider lifestyle changes to reduce weight and lower the level of cholesterol in your blood.