Did you know that chronic stress can significantly affect your cardiovascular health? When you feel stressed, your body releases special chemicals called hormones. Some of these hormones are catecholamines, which include epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and norepinephrine. These hormones help your body react quickly to danger or pressure, like when you feel scared or anxious. Another important hormone released during stress is cortisol, which can affect many body parts.
These hormones work together to prepare your body to handle stress. They can cause your heart to beat faster, increase your blood pressure, and alter blood flow. While these changes can help you respond to short-term stress, having high levels of these hormones over a long period can harm your heart and blood vessels.
Long-term stress can hurt your heart and blood vessels. When you’re stressed for a long time, your body keeps making chemicals that can cause problems. For example, stress can make your blood vessels less healthy, making them stiff or narrow instead of staying relaxed and open. This can raise your blood pressure and make it harder for blood to flow. Stress can also cause swelling and damage inside your blood vessels, which can lead to a disease called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. The lining inside your blood vessels, called the endothelium, is very important for keeping blood flowing smoothly, but stress can make it work poorly.
The Role of Stress Hormones
Catecholamines: These hormones, including epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, can increase your heart rate and blood pressure. This makes it more difficult for blood to flow properly. High blood pressure can lead to serious health problems like heart attacks, strokes, and abnormal heart rhythms.
Cortisol: This stress hormone can make it harder for your blood vessels to stay healthy. When you have a lot of cortisol for a long time, it lowers the activity of an enzyme that helps protect your blood vessels. This means your blood vessels can become leaky and get damaged more easily. Cortisol also lowers something called nitric oxide, which helps your blood vessels stay open and flexible. With less nitric oxide, your blood vessels can tighten up, which raises your blood pressure and makes your arteries stiffer. On top of that, cortisol increases a substance called endothelin-1, which makes blood vessels stiffer and can cause damage. These changes make it harder for blood to flow well and can hurt your heart over time.
Stress-Friendly Ingredients
Note: The following ingredients are suggested due to their impact on stress, not cardiovascular health. While magnesium does have heart-healthy benefits, it is only mentioned below because it is one of my go-to ingredients for stress and mental wellness. The other two ingredients have firm documentation showing they are beneficial for stress.
In addition to lifestyle changes, certain ingredients may help support your body’s stress response.
- Ashwagandha is known as an adaptogen, which means it helps the body adapt to stress. Ashwagandha contains chemicals that may help calm the brain, reduce swelling, and lower blood pressure.
- Magnesium is crucial for maintaining normal blood pressure, muscle function, and heart rhythm. It can also help relax blood vessels, lower blood pressure, and improve insulin sensitivity, all of which benefit heart health.
- Affron®: This saffron extract can help manage stress and anxiety. Studies have shown it to reduce negative mood and symptoms related to stress and anxiety. Two of its key mechanisms are regulating cortisol levels and impacting serotonin (the “chill-hormone”. Affron has also been shown to improve mood and sleep quality.
Heart-Healthy Supplements
The right ingredients can also directly support your cardiovascular system.
- ABG10+®: This aged black garlic extract is clinically proven to support heart health. It is standardized to contain a high concentration of S-allyl-cysteine (SAC), a key compound with antioxidant and cardioprotective properties. ABG10+® has been shown to help balance lipids, support healthy cholesterol levels, and promote vascular health. It also increases nitric oxide production, which helps improve blood vessel dilation and nutrient flow to the heart.
- AquaCelle® Omega-3: Omega-3s are known to lower triglycerides and enhance endothelial function. AquaCelle® Omega-3 is a specialized formulation designed to significantly boost the absorption of EPA and DHA (key omega-3 fatty acids). It has been proven to increase omega-3 uptake by over 600%.
- Bergavit®: This is a powdered extract of bergamot juice. It’s made by extracting the main flavonoids from the juice of the bergamot fruit. Bergavit® has been clinically studied and shown to help with healthy cholesterol and lipid levels. It has been shown to reduce total cholesterol, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and triglycerides, while potentially increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol. The product may also provide antioxidant protection and support metabolic wellness.
- Kaneka Ubiquinol®: Ubiquinol is the active antioxidant form of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). It is vital for cellular energy production, as 95% of cellular energy (ATP) depends on it. Your body’s ability to convert CoQ10 into the active ubiquinol form declines as you age. Kaneka Ubiquinol® is a highly absorbable supplement that supports heart health by aiding cellular energy production and offering antioxidant protection.
- Vitamin K2: Adequate Vitamin K2 intake is essential for preventing calcium plaque buildup that leads to atherosclerosis. It helps to keep the risk and rate of calcification as low as possible.
To sum up, the link between chronic stress and heart health is obvious. Knowing how stress hormones like cortisol and catecholamines impact your cardiovascular system, you can take proactive steps to safeguard your well-being. Including stress-reducing ingredients like Ashwagandha, Magnesium, and Affron®, along with heart-healthy supplements such as AquaCelle® Omega-3, Kaneka Ubiquinol®, Vitamin K2, Bergavit and ABG10+®, offers valuable support. This comprehensive approach, which combines stress management with targeted nutrition, can help you keep a healthier heart over time