U.S. researchers reported that people whose blood pressure rose during mental stress were six times more likely to have a heart attack or other severe heart event within six years than people who handled the stress more calmly.
And it was not stress that people knew they were feeling – their pulse rate was not affected and the volunteers usually had no idea their blood pressure was spiking, the researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando.
People with hyper-reactive blood pressure to mental stress were more than six times as likely to have a coronary heart disease event. An “event” was defined as a heart attack, severe chest pain known as angina or a 50 percent or more blockage of an artery.
Reuters Health