Anger, Emotional Upset, And Heavy Physical Exertion Can Trigger Stroke

Mental Health News – A global study co-led by NUI Galway found that one in eleven survivors experienced a period of anger or upset in the one hour leading up to it and one in twenty patients had engaged in heavy physical tension.

The suspected triggers were identified in the global INTERSTROKE study, which analyzed 13,462 cases of acute stroke, involving patients with a range of ethnic backgrounds in 32 countries.

Researchers at the National University of Ireland Galway examined the patterns in patients who suffered an ischemic stroke (when a blood clot blocks or narrows an artery leading to the brain) and also an intracerebral hemorrhage (bleeding within the brain tissue).

According to the study findings, anger or emotional upset was associated with an approximately 30% increase in the risk of stroke during one hour after an episode and a greater increase if the patient didn’t have a history of depression. Additionally, the odds were greater for those patients with a lower level of education.

The researchers discovered that heavy physical exertion was associated with an approximately 60% increase in the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage during one hour after the episode of heavy exertion. There was a greater increase for women and less risk for those with a normal BMI.

“The study also concluded that there was no increase with exposure to both triggers of anger and heavy physical exertion,” said Professor Andrew Smyth, one of the lead researchers of the study published in the European Heart Journal.

Later, co-author Dr. Michelle Canavan suggested that people of all ages should avoid heavy physical exertion, specifically, if they are high-risk of cardiovascular and adopt a healthy lifestyle of regular exercise.

To Know More You May Refer To:

Smyth, A., O’Donnell, M., Hankey, G. J., Rangarajan, S., Lopez-Jaramillo, P., Xavier, D., Zhang, H., Canavan, M., Damasceno, A., Langhorne, P., Avezum, A., Pogosova, N., Oguz, A., & Yusuf, S. (2021). Anger or emotional upset and heavy physical exertion as triggers of stroke: The INTERSTROKE study. European Heart Journal. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab738