According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, 19 million adults suffer from various disorders of anxiety. Anxiety disorder is the most common diagnosis in the child population.
As an everyday emotion, anxiety can be a good thing, prompting us to take extra precautions. But when anxiety persists, it can undermine our physical health. Evidence suggests that people with anxiety disorders are at greater risk for some chronic medical conditions.
Anxiety Can Take its Toll on the Body
Chronic generalized anxiety is often associated with several of the following physical symptoms: restlessness, feeling keyed up or on edge; fatigue; irritability; muscle tension; difficulty concentrating or experiencing times when the mind goes blank; or inability to relax or difficulty falling or staying asleep or restless unsatisfying sleep.
Conditions that can be Affected by Anxiety
Gastrointestinal disorders: About 10% to 20% of Americans suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or functional dyspepsia. In these disorders, the nerves regulating digestion appear to be hypersensitive to stimulation. There are no firm data on the prevalence of anxiety disorders in people with such digestive disorders, but a recent New Zealand study found an association between high anxiety levels and the development of IBS.
Chronic respiratory disorders: Although results vary, most studies have found a high rate of anxiety symptoms and panic attacks in patients who have chronic respiratory disorders such as asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), with women at greater risk than men. In several studies involving COPD patients, anxiety has been associated with more frequent hospitalization and with more severe distress at every level of lung function. So even if anxiety doesn?t affect the progress of COPD, it takes a substantial toll on quality of life. A study involving 20-year follow up showed that people with panic disorder were 6 times more likely to develop asthma than people without an anxiety disorder. This study was reported by G. Hasler in American journal of Respiratory & Critical Care in a 2005 issue.
Heart disease: anxiety disorders have also been linked to the development of heart disease and to heart attack (aka, acute myocardial infarction) in people who already have heart disease. Two recent studies concluded that among people with heart disease, those suffering from an anxiety disorder were twice as likely to have a heart attack as those with no history of anxiety disorders. Steven Barger and Summer Sydeman of Northern Arizona University found that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) can independently predict the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Let?s take an example to explain independent risk prediction. Say person A and B are of the same age and body mass index. Both use medication for high blood pressure and high cholesterol but A also has generalized anxiety disorder while B does not. The risk of A suffering from CHD is higher than that for B. The study was reported by Barger and Sydeman in the Journal of Affect Disorder in a 2005 issue.
About Anxiety
Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal, pathological anxiety, fears, phobias. Unlike the relatively mild, brief anxiety caused by a stressful event (such as speaking in public or a first date), anxiety disorders last at least 6 months and can get worse if they are not treated.
Anxiety disorders affect about 40 million American adults age 18 years and older (about 18%) in a given year, causing them to be filled with fearfulness and uncertainty. Anxiety disorders commonly occur along with other mental or physical illnesses, including alcohol or substance abuse, which may mask anxiety symptoms or make them worse.
Jeff Behar, MS, MBA regularly writes about hot topics in the areas of health, fitness, disease prevention, nutrition, bodybuilding, men?s health, women?s health, weight management, weight loss, vitamins and supplements and alternative medicine. His work also often appears in several of the major health and fitness newsletters, blogs, RSS Feeds, as well as print magazines, and many other online health, nutrition,and fitness websites.
Source: http://asthmaguide.healthrisks.biz/cardiac-diseases-due-to-anxiety/
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