WORLD / Health
Sex to earthquakes: causes of heart attacks
(LiveScience)
Updated: 2007-07-14 02:17
Anger really can trigger a heart attack. But then, so can getting sick,
being too hot, being too cold, air pollution, lack of sleep, grief,
overeating, natural disasters, exercise and sex.
In fact, simply waking up is the worst thing you can do if you're trying
to avoid a heart attack.
Heart attacks, strokes and cardiac arrests seem to come out of the blue,
but actually most occur upon waking up in the morning, according to the
July 2007 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter.
Before waking, our bodies release stress hormones into the bloodstream to
give us the energy to get out of bed, but this also stresses the heart
slightly. That nudge can cause a cardiac event if one's arteries already
are rife with festering cholesterol-rich plaque.
The dehydration that normally occurs after a night of sleep also puts a
plaque-plagued circulatory system at risk. Also, heart medications wear
off during the night.
A bout of anger can increase the chances of having a heart attack up to
14-fold for two hours following a flare-up, the Letter states.
Strenuous exercise such as shoveling snow or running can be a trigger,
but exertion is much less likely to cause trouble in people who exercise
regularly. So stay in shape, the authors advise.
Infectious diseases such as pneumonia and the flu can also trigger heart
attacks and strokes.
The fact is that most people sleep too little, rise and shine, make love,
shovel snow, eat too much, overheat, argue and recover from the flu
without getting a heart attack.
"Still, knowing what sets off heart attacks, strokes or cardiac arrests
can help you avoid triggers or blunt their power," the Letter states.
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