Depression is as bad for your heart as high cholesterol
It is common knowledge that anxiety and depression go hand in hand with chronic pain… “they say” that pain won’t kill anyone… but this study suggests that untreated pain could be a contributing factor to heart attacks
When you think of heart attacks, you might assume the most common causes are smoking, high cholesterol, or obesity. Mental health issues probably don’t spring to mind. But a new study suggests that depression poses just as great a risk to your heart health as those more familiar heart disease contributors.
In a new analysis, German researchers looked at health information from 3,428 European men, ages 45 to 74, who were followed for 10 years. And it turned out, dying from cardiovascular disease during the study period was as strongly associated with depression as it was with several of the classic “big five” heart disease risk factors: obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking.
Depression—which for this study, was determined by a checklist of mood symptoms, including anxiety and fatigue—accounted for about 15 percent of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease deaths, and high cholesterol and obesity for 8 to 21 percent. Diabetes posed less of a risk, accounting for 5 to 8 percent of heart-related deaths. This also helps in read more about intravascular ultrasound
Only two risk factors accounted for more cardiovascular deaths than depression: smoking (between 17 and 20 percent) and high blood pressure (between 30 and 34 percent). Writing in the journal Atherosclerosis, the authors conclude that “depressed mood and exhaustion holds a solid middle position within the concert of major cardiovascular risk factors.”
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Mental-health screenings should be standard in patients who have classic heart disease risk factors, they write, and depression should be addressed to hopefully prevent additional risk to the heart. Plus, they add, treating depression is likely to have noticeable, tangible benefits to patients—something that can’t be said for factors like high blood pressure or cholesterol.
Heidi May, PhD, a cardiovascular researcher at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, says that the new research is “very much in line with what’s currently being reported by other studies.” May was not involved in the analysis, but has also studied the link between depression and heart disease.
“There’s a growing recognition for the need to screen and treat depression, and that doing so can reduce the risk of negative cardiovascular outcomes,” she says. “This study adds to the research by looking at specific mood symptoms, so I think it’s a great addition to what we already know.”
May says that depression likely affects the heart in a variety of direct and indirect ways. “There are some physiological changes that take place in the body with depression, and there are also behavioral changes.” Depressed people are more likely to smoke, exercise less, and skip their prescribed medication, for example.
For the current study, the results for each variable were adjusted for all other risk factors—suggesting that depression is independently linked to heart disease, and is not just a contributor to unhealthy behaviors.
Previous research has also shown that this association is likely a two-way street: Just as depression can contribute to heart disease, suffering from a serious heart condition can also lead to depression. And in turn, depression can then impair recovery.
That’s why it’s important not only for people with cardiovascular risk factors to take care of their mental health, says May, but also for people with depression to take care of their hearts. “These conditions have a compounding effect,” she says, “and they should all be treated—whether you have one risk factor or five.”
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My BP goes up so high when the severe starts. 300/ …..when the pain goes down BP goes down. This is not good.
Sandrag
Absolutely no doubt about this. I’d also like to add that many studies have also found that poor sleep greatly increases your chances of a heart attack. As most of us know, physical pain (particularly chronic) is tied to insomnia and poor sleep.
To Tracy,,,,could I use your story/comment to send to my aclu????mary
Absolutely, Mary! You are more than welcomed to use it!
Thank u,m
UNTREATED PHYSICAL PAIN CAN AND HAS OBVIOUSLY KILLED,,,, ie,,,,undiagnosed pancreatitis collapsed my lower lung,,due to the swelling of my pancreas/bladder constricting my the thoracic arteries,,,,,thus,,,,it caused inverted t-waves,,,st,,segment changes ,and several ,”bad”; electrical pathways,,,that formed over years of ,”doctors,” calling me a women,thus a wimp,,and NEVER,, actually treating the undiagnosed cause of my physical pain,,thus,,it truly did effect my heart,,,17 cardiac ablation later,,,from,,,untreated physical pain!!!!untreated physical pain will kill,,and cause your heart to quit,,,,its just too much,,i saw in animals allll the time,mary
Absolutely, Mary. I’m a CPP myself, but my dad was completely disabled, chronically-ill and in severe pain from the time I was around 10 or so. After more than 30 years on oxycodone, I watched him physically fall apart after doctors in our area took him off the only medication that helped reduce his pain. (Seriously, no exaggeration on that).
Not only did his physical health fall apart, but he also became an invalid, prisoner of his house, because he was in too much pain to sit in a vehicle. No one thinks about all the important family activities (such as watching your only grandson graduate high school – less than a 5 minute drive from your house) the person in pain misses out on.
He passed away in February 2015. I didn’t grieve for many months (I think I was in shock) … and then the anger started building up in me, thinking of how much he suffered when he should not have had to suffer. My son and niece (his grandchildren – 4 months apart in age) were the light of his life … and he was forced to miss out on so much.