Stress and anger are a part of life. However, the body's reaction to uncontrolled stress and anger is a risk factor for heart disease. Here’s how to help.
When the body senses danger, it releases epinephrine, a hormone that makes the heart beat faster and the body ready for action. People who are stressed all the time, also secrete a hormone called cortisol. This hormone raises blood pressure and causes the body to retain fluids. Together, these circulating hormones place more stress on your heart. Depression worsens the readings on a barometer of death risk for heart patients. That barometer is a test that measures vascular endothelial function. That is, it measures how well one's blood vessels are working. Heart patients who aren't depressed do better on this test than those who report many depressive symptoms.
If you fit into this high stress category, there is help. Studies show that antidepressants may help. The researchers looked at 143 patients with heart disease. They had suffered a heart attack, bypass surgery, angioplasty, or a blocked artery. None was physically active. All had suffered an exercise-induced reduction in blood flow to the heart in the last year. Patients taking antidepressants, however, tended to do well on the blood vessel function test. The study does not prove that depression causes poor blood vessel function -- or that antidepressants reverse this outcome. Nevertheless, it has important implications.
Source: my.clevelandclinic.org