Doctors weigh-in on how to keep your heart healthy during times of stress

The stress of a two-year pandemic is taking its toll, with nearly half of Canadians reporting higher levels of stress now, than they had back in March of 2020.

Some health officials say what many Canadians don’t realize, is the risk of heart disease or stroke is directly linked to stress.

“Stress is something that raises blood pressures, elevates blood sugar, contributes to hardening of arteries,” Dr. Paul Oh, cardiologist, says now is the time to take steps to prevent heart health issues by being aware of the factors that contribute to higher levels of stress. “It’s time for us to have a close look at this and think about other strategies to manage.”

The Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation Program with University Health Network says key sources of stress have been hitting us all at once, including the global pandemic with no end in sight, kids back in school, climate change and snowstorms.

Dr. Oh suggests with an unending list of problems, it’s no wonder people feel anxious, tired and hopeless, adding our heart health suffers when we go through stressful life events. 

“Doing all the public health measures including vaccination I think are critically important to help us manage well at this time,” Dr. Oh says.

He says high levels of stress contribute to chronic feelings of anxiety, loss of control, distress from major life events and poor sleep.

Dr. Oh says stressful life events can’t always be controlled but suggests heart month (February) is an excellent time to reframe your approach to dealing with stress.

“Avoid some potential stressors that we can because whatever we can do to prevent additional burdens and knocks on our system is really important,” he says.

Dr. Oh explains these sources of stress can cause your heart rate and blood pressure to rise, plaque can collect in your blood vessels and your blood can become ‘stickier’ which will lead to clots.

All of these factors increase your risk of a heart attack. Although stressful life events cannot be controlled, Dr. Oh suggests the best approach is to develop a ‘stress-hardy personality.’

His suggestions include:

• Set goals that are realistic and within your control.
• Evaluate your priorities and learn to say “no.”
• Make time to be with your partner, your family or friends for support.
• Spend more time and energy focusing on the positive events in your life.

“Having a positive conversation, having a healthy meal, going for a walk in the right times accessing physical activity wherever we can in whatever shape that we can, these things can all be really good for us,” Dr. Oh says.

Officials at Windsor Regional Hospital say the total number of heart attack and stroke cases has dropped slightly since the pandemic began, but say the reasoning is anecdotal since there is little hard data.

The number of stroke cases by fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) went down from 540 in 2018-2019 to 455 in 2020-2021.

The number of heart attacks fluctuated over the last four calendar years, but still dropped since the onset of the pandemic.

• 2018 - 296
• 2019 - 303
• 2020 – 309
• 2021 -  297

“I don’t think there’s any question that the level of stress amongst the population is much higher now almost two years into this pandemic,” says WRH chief of staff Dr. Wassim Saad. “We know stress levels are higher in the general population and if you are someone who is prone to having heart disease and any type of vascular disease, then that added stress is certainly going to put a strain on your system and you have to be very vigilant about any symptoms you may have."

According to Dr. Saad, COVID-19 vaccines remain the best bet against stress-induced medical issues.

“COVID infections themselves can increase your risk of having heart attacks just by causing general inflammation and we know that it can also attack the heart itself,” Dr. Saad adds. “The vaccines themselves, beyond the myocarditis and pericarditis risk in young men which again is very small, there is no increased signal with respect to heart attacks or stroke after vaccination particularity.”

“You’re protecting yourself to the point where you can then go out and do some of the things that you need for your primary care and prevention including cancer screening, including getting blood work for cholesterol and diabetic and getting your blood pressure checked to ensure that all of those risk factors for heart disease are addressed and looked after so that you don’t let it go for too long and then are ultimately at risk for an adverse event whether that’s a heart attack or stroke or cancer diagnosis.”

Officials say by recognizing the signs and causes of stress, you can take steps to manage and minimize your body’s reaction.

“If you don’t follow up with your preventative health measures, then unfortunately you could get into a situation where you’re at an advanced stage or a stage where little could be done for you because you’ve let it go for too long,” Dr. Saad says.