Saturday, January 14, 2017

Can Stress Cause a Stroke? You bet!

If you've had a stroke you have ~35% chance of another stroke. Finally proof: Stress can cause a stroke. 
(Stress= ↑ Blood Clotting = Stroke)
Debbie Reynolds died recently just one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher died. The press says she died of a "broken heart." And that is probably true. There is now science that shows that stress can cause stroke and other cardio vascular diseases. 
(The Lancet abstract to this research here. Non-nerd take here.)

But the connection between stroke and stress is indirect. Here's the story:

The amygdalae (plural; there are 2 of them. Singular: amygdala) are small marble sized structures responsible for emotions.

In folks who have cardiovascular disease (like stroke) there is more activity in the amygdala.

This increased activity causes more C-reactive protein in the blood. C-reactive protein you guessed it— clots blood

Blood clot in the brain = stroke.










1 comment:

Tamara said...

You can actually shrink the size of the amygdala with meditation. Harvard studied this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/05/26/harvard-neuroscientist-meditation-not-only-reduces-stress-it-literally-changes-your-brain/?utm_term=.0d396a360dd3
I've started a lot of times with meditation because of this study, but I quit every time too. It's just too boring for me. But wanting to be a good hippie, I have to start. I mean, you can get results in 8 weeks the study says. I usually quit after 2 days, but start again when I bump into an article about meditation. Just to quit again after a day.

Blog Archive