Stress-Related Deaths

It happens, every now and then, that after being involved in or watched an exciting event or even received good news, someone collapses and dies in the euphoria of it or sometime later. The same goes for frightful events and sad news.

In superstitious societies, in the case of good news or excitement, it is easy to point an accusing finger on X or Y for being responsible for the unfortunate outcome.

But studies are constantly showing that stressful events, delightful or frightful, are responsible for most sudden deaths. It is common to hear of a coach dying after his team wins a major game or a candidate dying after winning an enviable scholarship.

Stress raises stress hormones levels that in turn raise arterial blood pressure which may disembark plaques in blood vessels that move and lodge in the coronary artery in the heart, leading to heart attack, settle in the brain arteries, leading to stroke or in the renal artery, leading to kidney failure.

Stress hormones also lead to diabetic syndrome and the raised blood sugar can lead to hyperglycemic coma. Under stressful situation, the immune system is highly impaired, making infections to easily take hold in our bodies.

Other conditions which raise stress hormone levels are anger, hate, jealousy and curiosity to know what is in another person's basket. Doing what you don't like and having to deal with someone or a situation you don't like is recipe for stress. We can employ emotional cognition technique, temporally, to weather the storm in stress but, sooner or later, the stress gets the better of us and we succumb. Vengeful thoughts are good bedfellows with stress.

Excess euphoria, contrary to what many think, is equally bad for health as it triggers a coping mechanism that may, unfortunately, compromise our very survival.

It would be fallacious and unwise to use superstitious justifications for what is of our own making. Our health lies in our own hands.

Living a restrained lifestyle is the best way to avoid stress and its ill effects.

Dr. Oliver V Birnso

Comments

  1. Oliver Verbe BirnsoFebruary 8, 2011 at 12:11 PM

    High blood pressure, by dislodging plaques, will increase the release of tissue factors that aid clotting. Turbulence flow will slow down flow, down stream and promote clotting. And more especially, stress, which increases the likelihood of blood loss through histamine release and bleeding, promotes clotting, a protectve mechanism genetically acquired over evolution. Clotting is a major cause of stroke and heart attack.

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