Heart Attack Rates Up After Attacks
Sept. 28 -- Traumatic disasters, both natural and manmade, are powerful stressors that can take their toll on the heart. And if you have coronary artery disease, stress and anxiety can be deadly.
In the wake of the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, "There is a palpable anxiety that is out there everywhere right now," says Robert Kloner, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine at USC and Director of Research at the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. "There clearly has been a sense of an increase in stress levels on a national basis and it is ongoing." Indeed, each passing day seems to bring new terrors to the foreground of the American conscious.
In anticipation of such harmful stress, Lori Mosca, M.D., Director of Preventive Cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital established a post-disaster heart attack prevention program in midtown Manhattan shortly after the World Trade Center attacks. "We have seen significant elevations in blood pressure, shortness of breath and chest pain, which are typically seen in the wake of natural disasters," says Mosca. "We are seeing what we might have expected."
Todd Poisson visited the midtown clinic after he saw a flyer that piqued his interest. At 33, he had no prior history of cardiovascular disease, but was told that he had high cholesterol, a risk factor for a heart attack that is common to see in periods of high stress. "The weeks following the attack have proven to be very anxiety provoking," says Poisson.
Disasters Toll on the Heart
Previous studies have established links between mental stress and cardiovascular events. Depression, anxiety and anger have been shown to be heart attack triggers and these powerful emotions are common in the wake of disasters. Those who are at particular risk are those who have coronary artery disease, including those who have not yet been diagnosed.
Dr. Kloner and his colleagues examined the effects of the 1994 Northridge earthquake on cardiac events in Los Angeles County. Three separate studies found that there was an increase in heart attacks, sudden cardiac death, and death from coronary artery disease on the day of the earthquake. "The closer one was to the epicenter, the higher the rate of a cardiovascular event," says Kloner.
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