6 Ways to Reduce Stress for a Healthier Heart

It’s unde­ni­able; stress is a part of every­day life. Try­ing to bal­ance work and fam­i­ly and still find­ing time to do things you enjoy can feel impos­si­ble. These over­whelm­ing feel­ings cre­ate the per­fect storm where exces­sive dai­ly stress col­lides with soci­etal pres­sures to always be bet­ter, wealth­i­er and more suc­cess­ful. With Feb­ru­ary rec­og­nized as Nation­al Heart Month, it’s a great time to focus on how man­ag­ing stress can pro­tect your heart. 

How Does Stress Affect the Heart? 

Stress sets off a chain reac­tion where your body releas­es adren­a­line, a hor­mone that increas­es your res­pi­ra­tion, blood pres­sure and heart rate. This​“fight or flight response” is meant to help your body react in dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions. It’s a state to help you pro­tect your­self; how­ev­er, expe­ri­enc­ing this stress reac­tion on a reg­u­lar basis does more harm than good.

With pro­longed or recur­ring stress reac­tions, you may expe­ri­ence chron­ic headaches, stom­achaches, tight mus­cles, declin­ing ener­gy lev­els, or changes in your sleep pat­terns. You may feel anx­i­ety, anger, depres­sion, irri­tabil­i­ty, impa­tience and for­get­ful­ness. Talk to your doc­tor to be sure that these symp­toms aren’t relat­ed to med­ical con­di­tions or med­ica­tions. If all oth­er symp­tom caus­es are ruled out, you should focus your efforts on learn­ing how to bet­ter man­age dai­ly stres­sors to improve your heart health and over­all well-being.

Learn­ing to cope with stress can help reduce the amount of time your body spends in a stress response state and pre­vent the phys­i­cal reac­tions that adverse­ly affect your car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem. Read some tips on stress man­age­ment below, and if you’d like addi­tion­al guid­ance on han­dling stress to pro­mote your heart health, sched­ule an appoint­ment with a car­di­ol­o­gist near you today! 

6 tips to help man­age dai­ly stress:

1. Talk, Talk, Talk!

Turn­ing to fam­i­ly and friends, or even a trained ther­a­pist, to dis­cuss what’s caus­ing you stress can do won­ders for your heart. When we bot­tle up stress, our body’s stress response stays ele­vat­ed for longer. Talk­ing things out helps process emo­tions and reduces the inten­si­ty of these reac­tions, low­er­ing the strain on your car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem. Talk­ing to some­one to get a fresh per­spec­tive with new insights and solu­tions can help your body feel safer and less reac­tive when fac­ing future challenges. 

2. Exer­cise Regularly

Whether it is high-inten­si­ty inter­val train­ing, a walk in the park, or a long evening bike ride, exer­cise is one of the best tools to pro­tect your heart from the dam­ag­ing effects of chron­ic stress. Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty reduces the body’s lev­els of stress hor­mones and releas­es​“feel-good hor­mones” that can help you relax and relieve both phys­i­cal and men­tal ten­sion. Reg­u­lar exer­cise low­ers blood pres­sure, strength­ens the heart mus­cle, and increas­es cir­cu­la­tion. This makes your body more resilient and less prone to extreme phys­i­cal reac­tions dur­ing stress­ful situations. 

3. Engage in Meditation

Deep breath­ing, yoga, and tai chi are just a few types of med­i­ta­tive prac­tices that acti­vate your parasym­pa­thet­ic ner­vous sys­tem, which slows your heart rate, low­ers blood pres­sure, and reduces mus­cle ten­sion. These activ­i­ties improve your abil­i­ty to stay calm dur­ing stress­ful moments and make it eas­i­er to nav­i­gate life’s chal­lenges with­out trig­ger­ing an intense stress response. Tak­ing pro­longed breaks from the com­put­er, cell phones and elec­tron­ics may allow you to unplug from con­stant dis­trac­tions. These activ­i­ties pro­mote bet­ter sleep habits that are essen­tial in help­ing your body recov­er from stress and fur­ther strength­en your heart over time. 

4. Healthy Diet

What you eat plays a direct role in how your body man­ages stress and inflam­ma­tion. A good bal­ance of vit­a­mins, min­er­als, and elec­trolytes will pro­vide the fuel your body needs to reg­u­late stress hor­mones and sup­port heart func­tion. A healthy diet sta­bi­lizes blood sug­ar, pre­vent­ing ener­gy crash­es that can exac­er­bate stress. Poor nutri­tion can wors­en your stress response, caus­ing your blood pres­sure to spike and increas­ing your risk of heart-relat­ed com­pli­ca­tions. Inflam­ma­tion from stress and food is a lead­ing cause of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease. Stud­ies show inter­mit­tent fast­ing, avoid­ing processed food, and reduc­ing red meat and processed car­bo­hy­drates may help with inflammation. 

5. Stay Organized

Much of your dai­ly stress can be caused by for­got­ten appoint­ments or items, over-packed cal­en­dars, unhealthy on-the-go eat­ing, etc. Dis­or­ga­ni­za­tion can increase feel­ings of over­whelm and keep your body under height­ened stress. Try to plan ahead when pos­si­ble to give your brain a sense of con­trol over your envi­ron­ment. Lay out back­packs, brief­cas­es, and clothes the night before. Have an assigned place in the house for impor­tant paper­work and mail. Meal prep over the week­ends to reduce the need for fast food. Being pre­pared helps pre­vent stress­ful sit­u­a­tions that spike your heart rate and blood pressure. 

6. Prac­tice Pos­i­tive Self-talk

Your inner dia­logue can shape how your body reacts to stress. Instead of resort­ing to an​“I can’t do this” men­tal­i­ty think​“I am going to do the best I can,” and then accept that what you are able to do is good enough! Embrace the things you can change, laugh, and slow down, and rec­og­nize that we are not always in con­trol. These small men­tal shifts improve your emo­tion­al well-being and reduce stress’s toll on your heart. 

Why Man­ag­ing Stress Mat­ters for Your Heart 

Small, con­sis­tent actions can build a strong foun­da­tion for your phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al well-being, help­ing you live a health­i­er and more ful­fill­ing life with a healthy heart. To learn more about how you can tai­lor your dai­ly habits to improve your car­dio­vas­cu­lar health, sched­ule an appoint­ment with a car­di­ol­o­gist near you today. 

Talk with your pri­ma­ry care provider about ways you can reduce stress and con­tin­ue to care for your heart.