Depressed? Anxious? Stressed? These could put you on the fast track to heart disease risk

 American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023 and Resuscitation Science Symposium 2023, held earlier this month in Philadelphia: here are some of the important scientific findings that could impact your heart and stroke health.

• A study found that depression and anxiety may speed development of risk factors, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes, that increase heart attack and stroke risk. Participants previously diagnosed with anxiety or depression developed a new risk factor on average six months earlier than those who did not have depression or anxiety. Depression and anxiety increased the risk for a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, by about 35%.
• A second study found that cumulative stress increased the risk of poor heart and brain health in two ways: by directly influencing physical well-being and increasing poor lifestyle behaviors, such as smoking and being sedentary, according to two new studies.
• “There are clear associations between psychological health and cardiovascular disease risk. These studies add to a growing body of data we have on how negative psychological health can increase the risk of heart and brain disease, They illustrate that health care professionals should be aware that negative psychological health — things like depression or anxiety — not only affect patient’s mental state of being, but also can impact their physical health and the risk for heart disease. So, these are not benign conditions, these are things for which we want to aggressively refer people to mental health professionals,” said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., FAHA, writing committee chair of the American Heart Associations’ 2021 Psychological Health, Well-Being, and the Mind-Heart-Body Connection scientific statement and master clinician and professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, chief of the cardiology section at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, both in Houston.
• AHA health information: How does stress affect the body?