Due to scientific research stress and heart disease are now starting to be linked together. Does stress cause heart disease? According to the British Heart Foundation in the UK:

"Research evidence is beginning to recognize that, for some people at least, stress may contribute towards coronary heart disease."

They report that evidence is growing to say that stress contributes toward heart problems. But due to the nature of stress and the fact that it is not easy to measure they are not directly able to say whether stress does cause heart disease.

It would seem that it will still be some time before we know for certain whether stress causes heart disease.

Main Risk Factors For Heart Disease?

So what are the main risk factors for heart disease? They are:

• High blood pressure

• High blood cholesterol

• Being overweight

• Diabetes

• Smoking

• Family history of coronary heart disease

So at the moment stress is not seen as a primary cause of heart disease but research has been done to show the following links between the two.

Facts About Stress and the Heart

According to the British Heart Foundation what we know about stress and the heart so far is as follows:

• Stress can affect the heart when it releases certain hormones. The hormones increase blood pressure and can encourage clotting in the arteries.

• Stress can increase the production of cortisol and adrenaline - these are chemicals which produce the fight or flight syndrome and prepare the body for change.

• Research continues to be carried out into what the release of cortisol and adrenaline does to the body - how it can lead to fatty deposits being built up in the arteries, how it can make the blood more likely to clot and can increase blood pressure.

• Stress has a role to play in your attitude or state of mind. This means that instead of thinking what you are doing and the impact your choices are having on your body you choose to take short term solutions which have an adverse impact on your heart. For example, when you are stressed you are more likely to eat less healthily, eat less regularly, drink too much alcohol or coffee, or smoke more than you usually do.

• Research has shown that stress can also discourage you from doing more healthy activities like meditation or physical exercise.

So does stress cause heart disease? It is not clear at the moment as not enough research has been done but evidence is starting to mount that stress and heart disease are linked.

Rather than waiting to see if stress is affecting your health, the best form of cure is preventative. Doing exercise, eating healthily and getting a good night's sleep will all help towards relaxing you and therefore your heart.



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The body parts and functions are explained in 2 branches of science: anatomy and physiology. The Cardiovascular system plays a crucial role when it comes to the working of our body.

It is this system that makes sure the smooth running of each activity that occurs in our body. The system is made of the heart, blood, blood vessels and the lymphatic system. Its big part is to pump blood around the body. It's a hollow muscular organ divided by a vertical wall called the septum. The two chambers are further split into the atrium above, and the ventricle below, leading to 4 chambers. Oxygenated blood is carried away from the heart by the arteries whilst deoxygenated blood is brought back to the heart by the veins. The heart acts as the central power point as it is the part that propels blood to all the other parts of the body and this indicates that failure of the heart to pump blood would lead to malfunctioning of all the body cells and tissues.

The interstitial liquid that surrounds the tissue cells is serviced by blood which transports oxygen and nutrients to it whilst the lymph removes toxins and waste products. Blood forms about 70% of the body weight consisting of plasma, corpuscles and platelets. CO2 from the cells to the lungs. Hormone from the endocrine glands to the cells. As blood is the main transport system, so it might also bring bacteria to the tissues. The lymphatic system is the protective system that picks up the materials, cleans them of waste materials and poisons, and returns them to the blood.

Their big part is transport of blood to and from the heart. The heart system is thus the activator of each other activity that occurs in our body, since the body can't function without the flow of blood.

Here is a quick overview of the different functions of blood:

TRANSPORT

• Oxygen from the lungs to the cells.

• Carbon dioxide from the cells to the lungs.

• Nutrients from the intestines to the lungs.

• Waste materials from the cells.

• Hormone from the endocrine glands to the cells

• Heat from various cells

REGULATES

• pH(concentration of hydrogen ions)

• Body temperature.

• Salts.

• Water content in the cells.

PROTECTION

• Prevents loss by clotting and combats toxins

• Protects the body against heat loss.

Patrick is an up and coming health expert. He recently found a great human anatomy study guide software program.



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Researchers now know that there is a connection between high cholesterol and thyroid problems.

There are potentially tens of millions of Americans with undiagnosed thyroid problems causing their high cholesterol. Some even speculate that low thyroid hormones specifically, are the number 2 cause of high cholesterol.

This connection is explained by the metabolic role of your thyroid gland. In short, when the thyroid slows down hormone production (hypothyroidism), your liver would then have a harder filtering the blood and removing the cholesterol.

This is important to know for those with high cholesterol, because if you happen to be one who has hypothyroidism problems, then you may not respond to any of the cholesterol treatments (except diet and exercise of course, as those also help thyroid problems).

Unfortunately, thyroid hormone levels aren't usually tested during blood testing, and yet cholesterol levels are. And many doctors don't test thyroid levels when there are cholesterol problems, even though the connection between the two is well documented.

Some even say that up to half of Americans with thyroid disease remain undiagnosed.

High Cholesterol and Thyroid Disease Remedies

So, you should first find out if it is a thyroid problem that causes high cholesterol (at home test can show this). If that's the cases then there's good news. You can actually drop cholesterol levels significantly without the medications by using natural and safe prescriptions for thyroid problems. Another option is thyroid hormone replacement, but it comes with its side effects.

But this is great news, because cholesterol drugs are terribly unhealthy for you, and even the most extreme prescriptions thyroid hormones are usually less expensive.

The thyroid problems doesn't just cause higher cholesterol either, it can cause fatigue, weight gain, dry skin and sensitivity to the cold.

So if this is you, you may want to talk to your doctor and consider thyroid supplementation with the key natural ingredients to fix the thyroid problem.



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