Physical and emotional stress has been linked to a number of debilitating symptoms including insomnia, migraines, increased levels of cortisol and even weight gain. Now, it has been shown to be linked to damage in the aorta.
The aorta is the largest artery in the body and is involved in bringing oxygenated blood through the entire circulatory system. Stress elevates blood pressure and a sharp increase or decrease in blood pressure is proposed to cause tears in the tissue surrounding the aorta.
Blood pressure can cause tears in the arteries in one of two ways. Either the arteries constrict causing hypertension or they dilate causing low blood pressure. A dissection is the “events immediately preceding the tear” and have been shown to be potentially life-threatening because there can be bleeding into or along the aortic regions.
Dr. John A. Elefteriades and colleagues conducted a large scale study of the physical and emotion stress related consequences of aortic dissections. They studied 90 patients who had been treated for an aortic dissection and found that most could remember a triggering event. High levels of activity and severe emotional stress were found to be important triggering events. They also found that 20% of the 90 participants had a family history of aortic disease. So, it seems that a genetic background for the vulnerability leaves people at risk and that physical and/or emotional stress is a modulating factor in whether someone suffers from a tear after an emotionally charged event.
[Source: MedlinePlus]
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