Brain activity 'key in stress link to heart disease' | Hacker News Reader

Brain activity 'key in stress link to heart disease'

bbc.co.uk

119 pointsrobinwarren30 comments

> Heart experts said at-risk patients should be helped to manage stress.

Is there any high-quality evidence that "stress management" interventions actually lead to a medically significant reduction in biological stress? I see this sort of thing mentioned in passing in lots of places as a potential mitigation, but studies that actually examine its effectiveness seem to be in short supply, and what I can dig up quickly seems to be low-quality (underpowered, not randomized, not controlled).

Off the top of my head, stress reduction and meditation are part of the Dean Ornish program, which has some evidence for slowing atherosclerosis progression. Next question is, would causing a reduction in activity in the amygdala lead to reduced cardiovascular events?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399903...

http://circoutcomes.ahajournals.org/content/2/1/25.short

I don't even see how one could have effective "stress management" provided by a US health insurance company or healthcare provider.

Good luck getting treated for GAD without first some random SSRIs and blood pressure med cocktails.

My insurance company covers counselors for "medically necessary" reasons. What constitutes medically necessary is up to the counselor. They know how to bill it so you're covered.

Meditation has a growing body of evidence that it reduces stress, not sure if it reaches high quality threshold yet. But there is very little harm in trying it (versus diet or pharma interventions).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/05...

A long time ago people reduced stress during the work day by stepping away from their desks, going outside, and enjoying a cool, relaxing, mentholated product from the Philip Morris company

A nice smooth refreshing cigarette, and it will give you lung cancer before the heart disease kicks in.

You'd be surprised.

There are far more heart disease than lung cancer deaths in the US -- and has been so since forever (4 times more or so).

In fact the number of lung cancers peaked in 2014 -- way after smoking became a faux pas. It was less when everybody and their dog smoked.

Wow, this is a great example of dishonest statistics. The rate of lung cancer deaths peaked somewhere around 1985-95. This being the population that began smoking back in the 50s and 60s, by my estimate. You can't use raw numbers here because population has changed substantially in the US over the years.

And smoking causes heart disease...

Or raise your chances of heart disease itself, or a stroke.

why leave your desk?

Because the causes of stress are right there on your desk. Easier to get into a different frame of mind if you change your environment.

Even better, step away from the desk, go outside, skip the cigarette, and take a walk.

I wonder how this relates to other findings about the relationship between stress, health, and mortality. It's a TED talk, but I found it to have some practical and interesting conclusions. Beliefs about stress impact how much harm stress causes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress...

Is this new? I've heard for years that stress causes all kinds of health issues (first of all, heart disease) and thought it's universal knowledge.

It was but there wasn't a lot of information about how stress caused heart disease. This article talks about a potential mechanism for how it happens.

We already knew that the amygdala activates the sympathetic nervous system during stress, which causes inflammation, and this was suspected to be the reason for heart disease. This study just provides more experimental evidence.

This is great news. Except now, how do quell activity in the amygdala?

Psilocybin

Actually, this is the best answer here. This is basically exactly what shrooms do to the brain.

When do we get /that/ on the ballot?

Once all the baby boomers drop dead. Seriously.

As well as a lot of other stuff, which you may or may not want.

Not to be the link guy, but links?

Like PET imagery of amygdala suppression after administration?

beer?

Meditation and yoga practice.

The first step is to stop worrying about what your amygdala is doing.

See? Don't overthink it.

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