How Stress Can Cause a Sudden Heart Block in Your Body ?

Stress is a normal emotional and physical response, and everyone occasionally experiences it due to various trigger factors. In certain urgent circumstances, stress may be good for your health because it causes your body to release hormones that quicken your heartbeat and respiration rate as well as prepare your muscles for action. However, it can have a negative impact on your health if your stress response doesn't stop and the increased heart rate remains high for a long period. Prolonged stress may affect various systems of your body and may result in heart block in extreme cases.  

What is Stress?  

Stress is a common human response, and your body reacts physically to unusual and difficult situations due to the stress the situations may cause. Your body uses stress reactions to adapt to new circumstances, and this stress may be beneficial if it keeps you motivated, aware, and prepared. For instance, the stress response can help you remain awake longer if you are under stress before a big test, however, it becomes an issue when it persists without interruption.  

The nervous system regulates your breathing, heart rate, eyesight, and other bodily functions, and sometimes you get a fight-or-flight response due to stress. In that case, your systems work too hard as a result of the prolonged activation of the stress response, and symptoms manifest as behavioral, emotional, and physical. 

The hypothalamus, a small area near the middle of the brain, also triggers an alarm system in the body when it perceives a threat, and this system stimulates the adrenal glands. These glands then produce a lot of hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline, that instantly impact your health.  

Adrenaline increases blood pressure, quickens heartbeat, and provides you with a boost of energy, and cortisol raises blood sugar and quickens your body’s use of glucose. Additionally, cortisol inhibits certain bodily processes, such as the immune system's reactions or the digestive system, that in a fight-or-flight scenario would be unnecessary. These effects sometimes can cause heart block in people if the stress response doesn’t go away after some time.  

You also run an increased chance of developing a number of illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, pain in the muscles, stroke or excessive blood pressure, issues with sleep, concentration trouble, and memory problems. 

Stress Increases Your Risk for Heart Disease  

Stress causes the secretion of the hormone cortisol, and research indicates that prolonged stress can raise blood pressure, triglycerides, blood sugar, and cholesterol due to the large amounts of cortisol it produces. These are typical heart disease risk factors, and this stress response may lead to alterations that increase the accumulation of plaque deposits in the arteries.  

Angina pectoris, or inadequate blood supply to the heart muscle, can be brought on by even a little stress and is the factor behind many heart block types. The heart isn't getting enough blood or oxygen in this state, and the way the blood clots also get impacted, which raises the risk of stroke.  

How Can Stress Cause Heart Block?  

A heart block occurs when there is a problem with the signal that comes from your heart's upper chambers reaching its lower chambers. Typically, electrical signals, or impulses, go from the top (atria) to the lower (ventricles) chambers of the heart, and the signal usually travels to the AV node. The AV node is a collection of cells that connects the electrical activity in your top and bottom chambers, and due to a heart block, the signal doesn’t reach your ventricles. 

As a result, the heart might not function properly and beat erratically or slowly. Heart block can, under extreme circumstances, impair your heart's capacity to pump blood, resulting in reduced blood flow throughout your body. There are many heart block types that depend on the bodily function or the organs that the stress response affects.  

Cardiovascular System can Cause Heart Block Under Stress 

The two components of the cardiovascular system that cooperate to supply the body's organs with nutrition and oxygen are the heart and blood arteries. The body's reaction to stress also involves a coordinated activity of these two organs because of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Acute stress is defined as brief stress, such as abruptly applying the brakes to avoid an accident, which causes an increase in heart rate and stronger contractions of the heart muscle.  

Furthermore, blood arteries that supply the heart and major muscles with blood expand, pumping more blood to these areas of the body and raising blood pressure in the process. The body returns to normal when the acute stress experience has ended, but prolonged stress doesn’t work this way. 

Prolonged periods of persistent stress, often known as chronic stress, have been linked to long-term heart disorders because of the constant rise in heart rate. Elevated cardiovascular activity increases the risk of heart block, heart attack, or stroke as a result of this prolonged, continuous stress.  

Respiratory System Affected by Stress Causes Heart Block  

The respiratory system eliminates carbon dioxide from the body and provides oxygen to the cells, and the trachea, the larynx in the throat, the bronchi, and the lungs all take part in this process. Breathing difficulties and fast breathing are common respiratory symptoms of stress because stress response causes the airway between the nose and the lungs to narrow.  

This usually poses no issue for those without respiratory conditions because the body can compensate for the extra effort needed to breathe comfortably. However, prolonged stress can make breathing harder for those who already have respiratory conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and as a result, cause heart block. 

Stress-related Effects on the Musculoskeletal System cause Heart Block 

Muscles stiffen up in the body in response to stress because muscle tension is the body's protective mechanism against possible bodily harm. When the muscles stiffen up all at once in response to the abrupt onset of stress, they also affect the heart muscles, and that can lead to heart blockage symptoms. The body's muscles experience a condition of stiffness that is nearly continuous while under chronic stress, and extended durations of stiff muscles cause other harmful effects on your body as well.   

Stress Worsens Microvascular Problems Resulting in Heart Block 

The largest blood veins of your body split into the arteries as they descend toward the heart, and the smallest blood arteries in the heart are known as the microvasculature. Some individuals with existing heart disease have malfunction in both the large veins and the smaller arteries. They may feel discomfort in their chest when they are under stress, and chronic stress can worsen the condition so much that it results in heart block. Research demonstrated that those who have coronary artery constriction and microvascular illness are more vulnerable to developing heart block issues in the future.   

Final Remarks 

Chronic stress can affect your bodily function, which, in turn, affects your organs and deteriorates their performance. See your healthcare provider to check whether stress is the source of your chest pain or breathing issues because they can be early heart blockage symptoms. If you've tried to manage your stress with the help of a counselor or therapist, but the symptoms still persist, your physician might wish to look into other factors that are causing the symptoms.   

For full-body check-up tests, contact Pathkind Labs! They offer top-level technicians and have modern labs to give you accurate results quickly.