When dealing with mental stress, it can take over the health of your heart. We often don’t think about the brain-heart connection when it comes to preventing a heart attack, focusing on the physical body instead. After two years of pandemic stress, doctors worry about what all that extra long-term anxiety is doing to our hearts.
For people who already have risk factors for heart problems to develop, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, stress can be the breaking point.
Tips to help protect your heart from stress:
· Exercise every day for 30 minutes, especially outdoors.
· Find the time to focus on yourself and reset your mind amidst the stress.
· Watch for warning signs that stress is affecting your heart like increased resting heart rate, butterflies in the stomach, sweating, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath.
· Don’t sweat the small stuff and remember, there are things you can’t control.
References: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2785948 https://www.today.com/health/health/heart-health-stress-impact-rcna14378?cid=eml_onesmallthing_20220207&user_email=a2e19903a17aea29e0e637faa77b683317cecb493c32185d6e7d534d1a39cf06&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ost020722&utm_term=TODAY%20One%20Small%20Thing
