Anxiety for male
Male teenagers or twenty-somethings who are diagnosed with anxiety are more likely to have a heart attack or heart disease later in life than men who do not experience anxiety disorders earlier in life.
The increased risk is extremely high: an early diagnosis of worry more than doubles the chances of later coronary trouble. The findings come from a new Swedish study published in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Anxiety in Young Men
Anxiety Researchers
The researchers studied almost 50,000 men who were born between 1949 and 1951. Data was first collected on the men when they were entering military service. Their health outcomes were then followed for the next 37 years, offering an exceptionally long-term and large study.
The young men identified as suffering from anxiety were those with clinical diagnoses from psychiatrists, so the study links real anxiety disorder (not merely passing nervousness) to heart disease.
The study did not include any women, so further research to determine whether the relationship between worry and heart problems is similar in scope for women.
Given the size and length of the study, the link between worry and coronary disease seems clear. However, it’s too soon, the researchers say, to conclude that anxiety actually causes these heart problems later in life. They offer a number of possible explanations for why early anxiety is so closely tied to later heart ailments.
The increased levels of adrenaline in the body of a person undergoing the chronic stress that accompanies worry may damage arteries. But that’s only a theory at this point.
Other studies have found a connection between depression and heart attack, so it’s possible that depression plays some intermediary role between worry and coronary disease, although the Swedish study did not find such a link.
Doctors caution that as of yet, there’s no specific medical advice being offered as a result of this study. They do suggest that patients with psychiatric diagnoses of worry pay close attention to their coronary health.
