Explaining stress mechanisms leads to heart attack and stroke

American scientists on June 22 said they have discovered how mechanisms of stress often lead to heart attack and stroke.

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According to AFP, scientists often stress that excessive production of white blood cells (or white blood cells ) triggers damage to the heart.

Excess leukocytes combine together on the artery walls, blocking blood flow and facilitating the formation of blood clots that move to many other parts of the body.

Stress leads to heart attack - (Photo: Shutterstock)

White blood cells are very important in fighting body infections and helping to heal wounds, but if the body has too many of these cells, or they are in the wrong position, they will be harmful. , AFP quoted study co-author Matthias Nahrendorf of Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA).

Doctors have long known that there is an association between chronic stress and cardiovascular disease, but they do not know the mechanism that triggers this.

In order to understand the link, expert Nahrendorf and his colleagues studied blood samples of patients with frequent stress, and found that the disease triggered bone marrow stem cells, leading to excessive production. white blood cell.

The excessive number of white blood cells causes them to build up in the artery walls, causing plaque to affect blood flow, causing blood clots in the blood vessels.

And this is the typical cause of a heart attack and stroke, Nahrendorf said.

He added that increased white blood cells are just one of the causes of heart attack and stroke, along with other factors such as high blood pressure, smoking and genetic characteristics.