Emotion: Factor In Heart Disease

“When a man dies, he does not just die of the disease he has – he dies of his whole life,” said the philosopher.  And now, from Britain, Dr. Alastair U. Mackinnon offers evidence to show that, with heart disease at least, that old proverb is true.

Writing in the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Mackinnon showed that the “anguished inner life of a patient” can be a prime factor in coronary thrombosis.  For more than three and a half years, he took photographs of all the coronary disease patients who visited the outpatient clinic at the General Infirmary at Leeds.  He also interviewed some 70 patients.

Dr. Mackinnon came up with shocking evidence that heart disease is often the final stage of emotional problems.  In more than half of the photographs he took, severe tension was obvious.  Interviews showed that the lives of the coronary victims were hectic – they lived at fast pace and were under emotional turmoil.

Some of the younger men worked 60 hours or more a week.  About 25 percent held down two jobs.  The emotional pressure such a schedule causes apparently produces biological and pathologic changes in the blood and the blood vessels.  Any incident which produces severe emotional stress at this time can trigger a heart attack and perhaps death.

What’s The Best Age To Have A Heart Attack?  Certainly, not when you’re young, reports Fitness for Living.

A 15-year study by the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the younger man who suffers a heart attack undergoes more severe cardiac damage, and is more likely to die suddenly or within the first 24 hours than is the man in his 40’s or 50’s.

The one advantage the younger men have:  if they survive the first year, a slightly larger proportion of them continue to live for 15 years than do the older men.

Discovering Potential Heart Victims.  Col. Loren F. Parmley of Walter Reed Army Medical Center claims that an electrocardiogram taken after moderate exercise may be able to pinpoint potential heart victims.  Electronic squibbles on the “EKG” chart indicate that the heart wasn’t receiving enough oxygen, a malfunction called ischemia.

Tests have shown that people with ischemia have high percentage of developing coronary artery disease.