October 21, 1995
Web posted at: 11:35 p.m. EDT
From Medical Correspondent Al Hinman
DURHAM, North Carolina (CNN) -- Doctors are putting mind over matter as they explore the effects of mental stress on the heart.
Cardiologists have long known that physical stress can trigger heart attacks. They now know that psychological stress can be just as threatening.
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center are developing tests to measure mental stress as a companion to treadmill tests, which examine the effects of physical stress on the heart. (402K QuickTime movie)
"Anger, hostility, we think are strong triggers for the stress on the heart and potentially triggering heart attacks or cardiac events," says Christopher O'Connor, a Duke University medical researcher. (135K AIFF sound or 135K WAV sound)
That's why O'Connor and others are experimenting with a
"mental stress test."
Volunteers are given simple but challenging mental tests, including having to add-up in their heads increasingly complex strings of numbers.
Doctors take the same kind of cardio-vascular measurements made during the treadmill test, which is used as a benchmark reference for their still-evolving mental stress test. (515K QuickTime movie)
"You can basically come up with a treadmill score, and I can tell you whether you have a likelihood of living or dying ... based on your treadmill, three years from now. We want to develop that sort of data base with this test," O'Connor says.
The Duke researchers believe their new mental test is twice
as sensitive as the treadmill test in spotting stress-related
cardiac disease. That's important, say doctors, since
research shows stress can be a killer.
"People who are chronically angry at age 20 or 25 are four to seven times more likely to have heart attacks or die from some other cause before they reach the age of 50," says Duke researcher Redford Williams. (135K AIFF sound or 135K WAV sound)
The doctors hope their "mental stress test" will become part of the routine examination given to all those at risk for a heart attack, whether from stress or heart disease.
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