In the hour following an angry episode, the risk of stroke would increase by 30%.
- Anger or emotional upset can trigger a stroke
- Doing intense physical effort would also increase the risk of cerebral hemorrhage
Knowing how to control your nerves can save your life: the global INTERSTROKE study published in the European Heart Journal who analyzed more than 13,000 cases in 32 countries establishes a very clear link between a surge of anger and the risk of stroke which would increase by 30%! This vascular accident affects 140,000 people each year in France, i.e. a stroke every 4 minutes, a figure which has seen an upward trend in recent years.
Research conducted by the University of Ireland analyzed the circumstances of occurrence of an ischemic stroke – the most common type which results from the blockage of an artery leading to the brain by a blood clot – and cerebral hemorrhage, less common, which results in bleeding into the brain tissue. “Our research found that anger or emotional upset was associated with an approximately 30% increase in stroke risk during, one hour after the episode, with a higher likelihood for people with higher education levels. lower,” says Andrew Smyth, professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Ireland.
Intense physical effort and risk of cerebral hemorrhage
His work also shows that the other factor capable of triggering a stroke is intense physical effort, which increases the risk of cerebral hemorrhage by 60% in the hour following the episode, particularly in women. But it is necessary to specify that this risk is related to a sudden intense effort and in no case to a regular physical activity which, it, reduces the risk of stroke in the long term.
“Our message is that people practice mental and physical well-being at all ages, but it is important for some to avoid strenuous physical exertion, particularly if they are at high cardiovascular risk,” says Dr Michelle Canavan, co – author of this study. Because if this work highlights the impact of an angry episode or too intense an effort on the risk of occurrence of a stroke, they should not make us forget other factors such as hypertension, smoking or ‘obesity. “Many studies have focused on these medium- and long-term exposures, but our job was to look at acute exposures that can act as triggers,” says Professor Andrew Smyth.
.
