A substantial, global research links heavy exertion while mad or stressed to a tripled risk of suffering a heart attack within an hour. So if you feel upset or angry, you should cool down before heading out for a run or intense workout.
Regular exercise helps prevent heart disease and is a healthy remedy to stress. Too many people get too little of it however. Also, the new study suggests that there may be better or worst times to exercise and extremes can bring harm.
Previous studies, though they looked at exertion and anger as heart attack triggers, included only a few women or minorities. This latest study included 12,461 people experiencing a first heart attack in 52 countries. Three fourths of the people studied were men and their average age was 58.
The respondents answered a survey about whether they experienced heavy exertion, or felt angry or upset. These should have occurred during the same time period the previous day or in the hour before their heart attack. That way, researchers would be able to compare risk at various times in the same people and the effect of these possible heart triggers.
Being distressed or angry heightened the risk of suffering heart attack symptoms two-fold within an hour. Heavy physical exertion did the same. Undergoing both at the same time more than tripled the threat for a heart attack.
The risk was independent of other factors such as high blood pressure, obesity or smoking and was greatest between 6 p.m. and midnight.
Caution may be in order, though. Patients reported their own anger or stress, and people who just suffered a heart attack may be more inclined to remember or think they suffered one of these triggers than they otherwise might have. Additionally, arduous exertion is whatever the patient perceives it to be. It could be climbing the stairs for some people while for others, running a marathon.
The study is possibly the best kind of data available. Nevertheless, it cannot prove cause and effect since it is only observational.
Physical exertion + intense emotions = heart attack
Also, the research‘s conclusions are biologically credible. Study leader Dr. Andrew Smyth of McMaster University said that exertion and emotional stress can increase blood pressure and heart rate. Furthermore, they reduce the heart’s blood supply, and change the flow of blood in the vessels. Consequently, a trigger could block blood flow and lead to a heart attack in an artery already jammed with plaque.
The Canadian Institute of Health Research, grants from drug companies, and other governmental bodies from different countries that took part funded the study.
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