Cardiovascular disease is mainly a consequence of how we live.
This condition is the number one killer among women in the developed countries and stress plays a significant part in increasing your risk of succumbing to this deadly disease.
Most women have to organize their own work schedule and then organize the home and the pressure mounts.
In many cases 85% of the work done in dual pay check families is done by women.
During the fertile age women have a lower risk of heart events because the female hormone estrogen provides a natural measure of protection.
Nevertheless younger women are still at risk and in this busy time, it is wise to use some protective regimen to ward off the effects of stress.
Even pausing and taking deep inhales through your nose and long exhales through your mouth and relaxing all your muscles as your exhale, will help to decrease the stress.
After menopause when most women are still working hard and have great responsibilities at work and at home, the female hormones begin to dwindle and the protection against heart disease fades.
So the post menopausal women who have risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood sugar abnormalities and stress are suddenly at greater risk of developing a heart attack, stroke or sudden cardiac death.
The stress from work and family will impact the health of the cardiovascular system in a significant way.
Several studies have revealed the effect of stress on heart disease.
Stress causes asymmetric impulses in the heart. Stress also causes an increase in circulating epinephrine which damages blood vessels and raises blood pressure and it causes inflammation in endothelium of blood vessels especially in the arteries that supply blood to the heart.
Stress also causes an increase in circulating cortisol which can increase obesity and diabetes.
The interesting thing is that all these conditions are silent and as they progress, women are often at a very important and busy stage of their career and are confronting multiple stressors.
Many studies have demonstrated that apart form the diminishing hormones in older women, stress itself produces hormones leading to an increasing risk of heart disease during or after menopause.
Exercise, relaxation training and mind fitness training have been found to be helpful and can be used as an antidote to the silent disease.
Every woman should be aware of their vulnerability to disease especially with the approach of menopause and the increase of stress.
Adopt some simple techniques to combat the effects of stress. You can find useful ideas and practical techniques here in my blog. Also you can download one of my best stress reduction trainings at www.poweroverstress.com
Get a hold of stress and use every difficulty as a cue to protect your most precious possession – your health.