Another Thing to Worry About: Worrying Takes a Toll on Heart

Jan 08, 01:47 PM

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

By Lauran Neergaard

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Those Type A go-getters aren't the only ones stressing their hearts. Nervous folks seem to be, too.

Researchers reported Monday that chronic anxiety can significantly increase the risk of a heart attack, at least in men.

The findings, published Monday by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, add another trait to a growing list of psychological profiles linked to heart disease, including anger or hostility, Type A behavior and depression.

Everybody's anxious every now and then. At issue here is not the understandable sweaty palms before a big speech or nervousness at a party, but long-standing anxiety - people who are socially withdrawn and fearful, chronic worriers.

University of Southern California psychologist Biing-Jiun Shen used data from a national aging study to estimate the effect of this trait on the heart.

The Normative Aging Study has tracked 735 men since 1986. They were heart-healthy at the study's start, have completed extensive psychological testing, and undergo medical exams every three years.

By 2004, there had been 75 heart attacks among the participants.

Shen tracked men who scored in the top 15 percent of anxiety scales that measure such things as excessive doubts, social insecurity, phobias and stress.

Those men deemed chronically anxious were 30 to 40 percent more likely to have had a heart attack than their more easygoing counterparts.

heart attack risk

Those men deemed chronically anxious were 30 to 40 percent more likely to have had a heart attack than their more easygoing counterparts.