from the now-I-have-even-MORE-to-worry-about dept.
Increased activity in the amygdala may be linked to a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease:
The effect of constant stress on a deep-lying region of the brain explains the increased risk of heart attack, a study in The Lancet suggests. In a study of 300 people, those with higher activity in the amygdala were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease - and sooner than others.
Stress could be as important a risk factor as smoking and high blood pressure, the US researchers said. Heart experts said at-risk patients should be helped to manage stress. Emotional stress has long been linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which affects the heart and blood vessels - but the way this happens has not been properly understood.
This study [DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31714-7] [DX], led by a team from Harvard Medical School, points to heightened activity in the amygdala - an area of the brain that processes emotions such as fear and anger - as helping to explain the link. The researchers suggest that the amygdala signals to the bone marrow to produce extra white blood cells, which in turn act on the arteries causing them to become inflamed. This can then cause heart attacks, angina and strokes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @05:05PM
Excise the amygdala. Make our Troops the perfect killing machines. For the undying glory of Trump!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday January 13 2017, @04:10PM
Stimulating the amygdala may effect the behaviour you desire.
/article.pl?sid=17/01/12/2158252 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @05:33PM
It is bizarre they treat these like "independent" risk factors. People who are stressed smoke more and have higher blood pressure.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @06:17PM
They are not statistically independent, but they are independent in the sense that none is completely determined by the others. In particular, you cannot deduce from someone's smoking habits and blood pressure how much stress he has. A non-smoker with low blood pressure may have stress, too.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday January 12 2017, @09:51PM
Stress eating is also a related factor.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday January 12 2017, @06:47PM
> Brain Activity may be Linked to Stress-Related (...)
Me confused by the idea that Stress-Related anything could have potentially not be linked to brain activity...
I'm also glad they're doing studies to confirm what my mom and grandma had been repeating for decades (also seen in many books and movies). Must have been an easy grant to get.
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Friday January 13 2017, @06:47AM
It’s not quite ‘Well duh…’ These scientists didn’t just confirm it, it seems they discovered an actual physiological mechanism for stress-related heart disease. Everyone and their mum and grandma always knew that stress was a factor in heart disease, but no one could tell you why, how, or quantify how much, until these scientists did their study. So now that this is known, some ideas for treatments that might help suggest themselves. Therapies that block or otherwise control the signalling pathway that the amygdala uses to tell bone marrow produce more white blood cells might be promising, for instance.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @07:04PM
Just knowing this causes me stress. Knowing that knowing it causes me stress causes me stress.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday January 12 2017, @07:49PM
Can I interest you in some soma? Cannabis? Mushrooms? Heroin? Jenkem?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by martyb on Friday January 13 2017, @01:17AM
Hmmm?
Just sayin'.
Wit is intellect, dancing.