Stress May Be Harder On Women's Hearts Than On Men's, Emory University Study Finds

As if it weren’t stressful enough knowing that stress is bad for our health, a new study finds that for younger women in particular, mental stress may contribute to heart disease in measureable ways. If you have heart disease to begin with, that is. The study looked at people in their 30s to 70s and found that when they started out with heart problems, being stressed in the lab reduced blood flow to their hearts, and the effect was significantly greater for women. It’s not clear if the results also apply to healthy individuals, but it’s likely they may, given what we know about the links between mental and heart health. And since heart disease kills more women every year, and women are more affected by anxiety than men, the results are worth paying attention to.

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