COLUMBIA, S.C. — February is American Heart Month and something we all deal with is stress. It could be work, school or just life. Cardiologists say everyday stress could impact your heart health.
“Stress does not discriminate, neither does heart disease. So of all spectrums of socioeconomic status, of all spectrums of race, of all spectrums of age, stress can happen,” Dr. George Yankey said.
Dr. Yankey is a cardiologists at the Medical University of South Carolina. American Heart Month begins Feb. 1, and he says there are many ways everyday stress can impact your heart health.
"Business and schedule, too much to do and not enough time to do it in. If I can get up from my desk and go and take a walk and clear my head and get my priorities right, then I can deal with the stress a little better," local resident Dane Boston said.
Job stress and emotional stress such as anxiety or depression are some of the biggest stressors Dr. Yankey sees.
“Stress is going to activate that fight-or-flight system and that’s going to release a lot of hormones. Those hormones both directly and indirectly cause elevations in blood pressure and elevations in circulating levels of cholesterol,” Yankey said.
Yankey said that high blood pressure and cholesterol build up can lead to heart disease.
Heart disease was the leading cause of death in South Carolina in 2021 with over 12,000 deaths, according to the CDC.
“15 to 30 minutes a day of some sort of cardiovascular exercise, whether that be walking or jogging or group sports, I definitely encourage folks to do that. We know that not only helps the stress but also helps weight, it improves your cholesterol, it improves blood pressure,” Yankey said.
Yankey says other ways to cope with stress include having a good support system or speaking with a therapist or family about your stress.
“Everyone has stress, you shouldn’t feel any sort of way or any sort of burden trying to work on improving your stress because we all have stressors,” he said.