
Chronic stress throws your body out of whack, but did you know that it can also affect your heart health? Our principal stress hormone is called cortisol, and it activates our systems to respond to whatever is making you stressed. This also is often accompanied by a release of adrenaline, a key part of your fight-or-flight response.
Stress can come from many places, your work, relationships, upcoming events, etc, and it isn’t always bad. Getting that rush of adrenaline and cortisol gives your body extra energy it needs to tackle whatever task your body perceives as stressful. When stress becomes chronic; however, that’s when it starts to affect your health.
Can Stress Cause a Stroke?
Stress becomes chronic when it occurs for more than a few weeks, this state can:
- Disrupt your sleep schedule
- Change your eating habits, making you more likely to overeat
- Cause headaches, nausea, and body pains
- Affect your mood, making you forgetful or cranky
- Drive you to smoke or drink more often
- Reduce your desire for physical activity
- Cause an irregular heart rate
Taken together, all of these disturbances can create long term changes that negatively impact your health. Lack of sleep, overeating, and staying inactive lead to weight gain, a huge risk factor for heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Drinking and smoking more often, when combined with poor sleep quality, makes inflammation build up in your body over time, compromising your nervous and cardiovascular systems.
Surprisingly, another risk factor for heart disease is depression and anxiety, which can come along with chronic stress. This is because the lack of energy and tendency to be more moody can drive you away from things that are good for you and make you happy, like exercise, hanging out with friends, or getting enough sleep.
All together, these factors raise your risk of heart disease, which is a precursor to having a stroke.
How to Reduce Your Risk of Stroke
As with many chronic issues, the first step is to adopt positive habits to get your health in check. You can start small, even just going for one walk per day can boost your mood and make you more motivated.
Here are some habits you can start now to improve your heart health:
- Stay active by doing something that brings you joy. That can be yoga, walking your dog, hitting an exercise class, swimming, or just doing some lunges across your living room.
- Find something fun to do that isn’t scrolling or watching TV. As much as these things can be great distractions, we don’t derive any long-lasting happiness from it beyond the short-term release of dopamine and an inevitable crash afterward.
- Stick to a regular sleep schedule by waking up and going to sleep at around the same time every day. This can help reset your circadian rhythm, which plays a role in energy, hunger, and stress. Make sure you’re getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep.
- Find something that makes you feel calm and incorporate it into your day. You don’t have to meditate, it could even be a hobby like knitting, hiking, or gardening.
- Get out of the house and engage with friends and family. Community is everything when it comes to mental health.
- If you have mental health issues that you can’t conquer on your own, consider getting a therapist so you can begin to work through depression, anxiety, OCD, or any other mental health issue holding you back.
- Arguably the most important intervention for preventing heart disease is eating healthy. The way you fuel your body affects how you feel and how much energy and motivation you have. Adopt a nutritious diet full of colorful fruits and veggies, lean meats, and healthy fats to provide the nutritional support your body needs to keep you from developing high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes.
Supplements for Heart and Mood Health
You can also try supplements to fill any nutritional gaps that may be contributing to your risk of heart disease. Here are some suggestions for supplements that contain ingredients that promote heart health:
- HPA Adapt Stress Resistance by Integrative Therapeutics helps your body adapt to chronic stress by equalizing cortisol imbalances. It uses adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha, rhodiola, and eleuthero, which can help impart resilience to both physical and mental stress. This blend is best for those experiencing poor focus or burnout.
- Daily Stress Formula by Pure Encapsulations uses energy-boosting B vitamins alongside calming factors like magnesium, chamomile, and lemon balm to balance your nervous system for better stress resilience. This formula is ideal for people who are looking to improve their mood and keep balanced energy levels throughout the day.
- Heart Protector Capsules by Pure Synergy are specifically designed to promote cardiovascular health and protect against oxidative stress, a driver of inflammation with antioxidant-packed ingredients like hawthorn berry, resveratrol, and CoQ10. This blend is best for those looking to protect their heart health, support healthy blood pressure, and reduce the impact of chronic stress on systemic inflammation.
Conclusion
Incorporating healthy habits into your daily routine is one of the most powerful ways to reduce chronic stress and protect your heart health. You don’t have to completely change your life, rather just make small, meaningful changes that add up over time. Move your body, eat healthy, get quality sleep, and actively work on your mental health and you’ll see the benefits in how you feel day-to-day as well as your long term cardiovascular health.
FAQs
Can stress cause a stroke?
Yes, chronic stress can lead to obesity, poor cardiovascular health, cardiovascular disease, anxiety disorders, mental illness, systemic inflammation, heart attack and heart failure, which are all risk factors for having a stroke.
How can I reduce my risk for stroke?
Take care of your body and it will return the favor. Eat healthy, exercise, and prioritize your mental health and your cardiovascular health will improve. The American Heart Association also published “2024 Guideline for the Primary Prevention of Stroke” with more research regarding stroke prevention.
What supplements help with stress?
Supplements that can help balance cortisol levels for reduced stress are Daily Stress Formula and HPA Adapt Stress Resistance. A healthy lifestyle and regular consultation with health care professionals regarding stress reduction, heart conditions and stroke prevention is crucial in prevention.