According to a new study at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, women who get stressed out by financial issues have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack.
The research took the form of analysing a previous survey, the Women’s Health Study, which followed participants over a period of nine years.
267 of the women in the survey experienced a heart attack with an average age of 56. At the start of the survey, the women were asked about the stresses in their lives, with it gauging events or factors in their lives against how traumatic they are.
It was found that the women who reported severe financial worries were twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack than those who did not, and women earning under $50,000 per year were also more at risk for stress events overall.
As an aside, regardless of income, a traumatic event such as a life threatening illness or the death of a child or partner increased the risk of a heart attack by 65 per cent.
Stress can truly affect our lives, and is more often than not triggered by events that are beyond our control. The only thing we can control is our minds and the way we manage external events internally.
This is where stress management comes in, and teachings like mindfulness can hugely help. Even though things may be stressful in life, it can help prevent those things from affecting you too negatively.
Remember: being too stressed out can be a huge health problem, so don’t be afraid to seek help if you are feeling the effects of it.
