The connection between depression and hypertension may be strongest in families with a history of hypertension.
Nearly 20 percent of heart patients without prior history of heart attack and up to 65 percent of patients who had previously suffered a heart attack were diagnosed to have clinical depression.
There is no clear evidence on the influence of depression on heart health. Nonetheless, some researchers suggest that depression interferes with the body's ability to adjust to common changes in blood pressure during the day.
Another school of thought is based on the finding that clinically depressed people tend to have higher levels of stress hormones (that is, adrenaline) than people without clinical depression. This may explain why the hearts of clinically depressed people beat faster, even during sleep. This is also in line with studies showing reduced heart rate variability (that is, the heart's ability to handle stress) for people with both heart disease and clinical depression. Furthermore, depressed people may be more likely to smoke, drink alcohol in excess or use drugs, all of which can lead to high blood pressure.
I am a 59-year-old retired US Army master sergeant. I was compelled to start this site to alert unsuspecting patients that have been told they need a coronary bypass that you probably don't. I was told by an interventionalist cardiologist in April 2004, that my heart was in great shape, but I needed a quintuple bypass. Why,, I wondered is my heart doing so good when the vessels that feed it oxygen are all clogged? Despite being told I needed surgery right away and that I was a walking time bomb, I got a second opinion and I am glad I did. Not only did I save myself from getting my chest cracked open in a major surgery, I saved a lot of money. PLEASE, get a second opinion whenever someone wants to give you a bypass. And read this entire blog.
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