Scimex: British and Swedish scientists have found that the more poorly a person
deals with stress when they are a teen, the more likely they will
develop coronary heart disease later in life. The researchers looked at
over 230,000 men and found the association remained even after they
adjusted the results to take into account physical fitness and other
established heart disease risk factors.
Researchers from Sweden and the UK found that the worse a person
deals with stress when they are an adolescent, the more likely they will
develop heart disease later in life and exercise might make little
difference.
Previous studies have identified that exposure to
psychosocial stress (stress experienced by people when they perceive a
threat that they feel they cannot deal with) has been identified as a
risk factor for coronary heart disease as well as other health problems.
However,
the role of stress resilience (the ability to cope with stress) in
adolescence, relevant to chronic stress, is less well understood. It is
also generally believed that high physical fitness in adolescence is
linked to a reduced risk of heart disease in later life.
Researchers,
led by the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at
Sweden's Örebro University, set out to investigate the relationship of
how well people dealt with stress in adolescence with subsequent heart
disease risk and to examine the role of fitness in this.
They used
information gathered on 237,980 men born between 1952 and 1956 who were
eligible for military conscription and included in the Swedish Military
Conscription Register.
At the time, conscription was compulsory
for all male citizens of appropriate age (18 and 19) and the
conscription examination included extensive medical, psychiatric and
physical assessments to establish health, fitness and psychological
profiles.
The subsequent risk of heart disease was assessed from
1987 (when the Swedish National Patient Register attained full coverage)
to 2010.
Stress resilience was measured as part of the compulsory
military conscription examination as part of an interview with a
psychologist.
Overall, 10,581 diagnoses of heart disease were
identified amongst the group between 1987 and 2010 and the researchers
examined if there was any association of stress resilience with heart
disease, with adjustment for established heart risk factors.
They
found that low-stress resilience in the men was linked to higher risk of
heart disease and this association remained even after they adjusted
the results to take into account physical fitness and other established
heart disease risk factors, indicating the potentially damaging effect
of stress itself.
Also, the teenagers with low stress resilience
were less likely to be physically fit, but strikingly, even good
physical fitness did not seem to provide protection from heart disease
among those with low stress resilience.
The authors concluded:
"Low-stress resilience in adolescence was associated with increased risk
of coronary heart disease (CHD) in middle age and may diminish the
benefit of physical fitness.
"Our results further suggest that
physical fitness varies by stress resilience level and that the
protective effect of fitness in adolescence is reduced or eliminated in
those with low-stress resilience. Effective CHD prevention might focus
on promoting both physical fitness and tackling stress."