A new study has claimed that people suffering from financial stress are at a 13 times higher risk of having heart attack.
Researchers say people, majorly in the developing countries, are experiencing a hike in the chronic diseases of lifestyle such as myocardial infarction -- a medical condition that develops a blockage of blood flow to the heart muscle.
Therefore, psychosocial aspects of the body, especially stress related to finances, deserve more attention in order to prevent the increasing rate of cardiovascular diseases.
"Our study suggests that psychosocial aspects are important risk factors for acute myocardial infarction. Often patients are counselled about stress after a heart attack but there needs to be more emphasis prior to an event," said Denishan Govender, Associate Professor at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
"Few doctors ask about stress, depression or anxiety during a general physical and this should become routine practice, like asking about smoking. Just as we provide advice on how to quit smoking, patients need information on how to fight stress," Govender added.
The researchers studied over 106 patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction but without any symptoms of cardiac diseases.
All participants completed a questionnaire about depression, anxiety, stress, work stress, and financial stress. The levels of psychological stress based on social conditions were compared and associated with chances of having heart attack.
The paper, presented in the Annual South Africa Heart Congress 2017, noted that self-reported stress levels were common among all participants.
There was also a three-fold increased risk of myocardial infarction if a patient had experienced any level of depression compared to those with no depression.
Migraine is a serious and debilitating neurological disease affecting one billion people worldwide.
The findings showed that the genetics of circadian rhythms has an effect on migraine and that people with the CLOCK gene variant have more migraines under financial stress.
The CLOCK gene has an important role in regulating many rhythmic patterns of the body, including body temperature or level of cortisol -- the primary stress hormone.
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Though the researchers did not find a significant direct connection between the gene and migraine when they factored in financial stress, they found that the investigated gene variants increased the odds of having migraine type headaches in those subjects who suffered from financial hardship by around 20 per cent.
"The study does not show what causes migraine but it does show that both stress and genetics have an effect. We were able to show that stress -- represented by financial hardship -- led to an increase in migraine in those who have a particular gene variant," said Daniel Baksa from the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary.
For the study, presented at the 30th ECNP Congress in Paris, the team of researchers from Hungary and the UK checked 999 patients from Budapest and 1,350 from Manchester, for two variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) of the CLOCK gene, and how these are associated with migraine.
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The gene variants was found in nearly one-third of the population, so they are common variants with small effect size, the researchers said.
"Our results shed light on one specific mechanism that may contribute to migraine. What it does mean is that for many people, the stress caused by financial worries can physically affect you," Baksa said.
"What we need to do now is to see if other circadian gene variants in association with different stress factors cause the same effect."
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