Stress and Your Heart

Patients who have suffered from cardiac disorders need to understand that their lifestyle, in terms of how they manage their overall health, will be a predictor of a future cardiac episode as well as overall longevity especially for those who are advancing in age (Brannon & Feist, 2004, p. 230). Psychologists, or mental health workers, can be helpful for patients in the sense that they can develop management plans to assist with cardiac rehabilitation as well as designing behavioral modification programs.

Psychologists work with cardiac patients, in conjunction with medical physicians, to develop coping strategies to help reduce stress, handle psychosocial reactions from friends and family, and create manageable treatment strategies (Livneh, 1999). Coping strategies, which can be developed from a problem-focused plan to manage the cardiac incident or an emotion-based perspective, assists in the reduction of depression in cardiac rehabilitation patients and this is helpful in managing the overall lifestyle of the patient (Ben-Zur, Rappaport, Ammar, & Uretzky, 2000).

Coronary heart disease has biomedical predictors such as obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, and high cholesterol levels all which are associated with how a person manages their lifestyle (Brannon & Feist, 2004, p. 221). In addition to consumption lifestyle behaviors there is research that suggests that those who personality disorders, or behaviors, such as those who have a Type A behavior pattern and experience chronic levels of hostility, have an increase in risk of developing coronary heart disease (Consedine, Magai, & Chin, 2004).

Inflammation is a further predictor of coronary heart disease as it is now understood that there is a relationship between atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease development and lifestyle (Steptoe & Brydon, 2005, p. 107). However, this chronic inflammatory response is not completely biological in nature and ties well the prior lifestyle contributing factors in that inflammation may be a physiological response to socioeconomic status, social isolation, depression, anxiety, or other lifestyle factors (Steptoe & Brydon, 2005, p. 119).

Ben-Zur, H., Rappaport, B., Ammar, R., & Uretzky, G. (2000). Coping Strategies, Life Style Changes and Pessimism after Open-Heart Surgery. Health and Social Work, 25(3), 201-204.

Brannon, L. & Feist, J. (2004). Health psychology: An introduction to behavior and health (5th Ed.). CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Consedine, N. S., Magia, C., & Chin, S. (2004). Hostility and anxiety differentially predict cardiovascular disease in men and women. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 50, 245-259.

Livneh, H. (1999). Psychosocial Adaptation to Heart Diseases: The Role of Coping Strategies. The Journal of Rehabilitation, 65(3), 24-27.

Steptoe, A. & Brydon, L. (2005). Psychoneuroimmununology and coronary heart disease. In K. Vedhara & M. Irwin (Eds.). Human psychoneuroimmunology. NY: Oxford University Press.