EXERCISE, ANGER MAY TRIGGER HEART ATTACK
IAssociated Press f you’re angry or upset, you might want to simmer down before heading out for an intense run or gym workout. A large, international study ties heavy exertion while stressed or mad to a tripled risk of having a heart attack within an hour.
Regular exercise is a healthy antidote to stress and can help prevent heart disease— the biggest problem is that too many people get too little of it. But the new research suggests there may be better or worse times to exercise, and that extremes can trigger harm.
“This study is further evidence of the connection between mind and body. When you’re angry, that’s not the time to go out and chop a stack of wood,” said Barry Jacobs, a psychologist at the Crozer- Keystone Health System in suburban Philadelphia and an American Heart Association volunteer.
He had no role in the study, led by the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Results were published recently in the Heart Association journal Circulation.
Earlier studies have looked at anger and exertion as heart attack triggers but most were small or in one country, or included few women or minorities. The new study involved 12,461 people suffering a first heart attack in 52 countries. Their average agewas 58 and three- fourths were men.
They answered a survey about whether they were angry or upset, or had heavy exertion, in the hour before their heart attack or during the same time period the previous day. That way researchers could compare risk at different times in the same people and the effect of these potential heart attack triggers.
Being angry or upset doubled the risk of suffering heart attack symptoms within an hour; heavy physical exertion did the same. Having both at the same time more than tripled the risk for a heart attack.
The risk was greatest between 6 p. m. and midnight, and was independent of other factors such as smoking, high blood pressure or obesity.
Big caveats: Patients reported their own stress or anger, and people who just had a heart attack may be more prone to recall or think they suffered one of these triggers than they otherwise might have been. Also, strenuous exertion is whatever the patient perceives it to be — for some people that could be climbing stairs and for others, running a marathon.
The study also is observational, so it cannot prove cause and effect.
The study’s findings also are biologically plausible. Emotional stress and exertion can raise blood pressure and heart rate, change the flow of blood in the vessels and reduce the heart’s blood supply, said the study leader, Dr. Andrew Smyth of McMaster University.