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KEEPING BLOOD PRESSURE DOWN DURING STRESS HELPS KEEP ARTERIES HEALTHY | |
| Contact: J. Richard Jennings Phone: 412 246 6220 Email: JenningsJR@upmc.edu Embargoed until: March 6, 2004 |
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Orlando, FL- The body's reaction to stressful challenges predicts whether blood vessels show the signs of heart disease. Over a seven-year period blood pressures reactions to stressful video games predicted vessel thickening, suggesting atherosclerosis, in the carotid artery. An investigation by a team of Finnish and American investigators studied a sample of over 1000 men from Kuopio, Finland. The size of blood pressure reactions to computer tasks, resembling videogames, was determined along with a large number of measures that put a person at risk for having cardiovascular disease. This was done as part of a larger study led by Drs. Jukka Salonen and George Kaplan, The Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study. The size of the blood pressure reactions was related to the thickness of the blood vessel wall of the carotid artery in the neck. Heart disease occurs when the blood vessels to the heart have walls thickened with extra tissue and fat (atherosclerosis). Blood vessels in the neck typically show a similar thickening when a person has heart disease, and vessels in the neck can be examined accurately using just reflected sound waves (Doppler ultrasound). Different members of the team have described how blood pressure reactions to stress relate to heart disease within this project. Thomas Kamarck of the University of Pittsburgh first described how blood pressure reactions to stress and wall thickening in the neck artery related at the time when both of them were measured. Susan Everson of the University of Chicago found that blood pressure increases just prior to a bicycle exercise test related to the thickening in the neck artery four years later. J. Richard Jennings from University of Pittsburgh currently at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting describes how the average blood pressure reactions to the stress tasks predicted thickening in the neck artery seven years later. These findings suggest that either rapid shifts in blood pressure or an associated change in the body during stress reactions may contribute to the growth of extra tissue and fat in the arteries of the heart. If this interpretation is correct, then it might also be true that reducing stress helps prevent heart disease. The investigators warn though that only middle-aged Finnish men were studied. The results might not be true for everyone. It would also have been better, but much more difficult, to measure the heart vessels directly rather than the neck blood vessels. Finally, we cannot say that stress causes heart disease until we know exactly how this happens and we observe the relationship in more people. | |
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Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Vicki White, Managing Editor for Manuscript Production,
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