Five ways stress affects your heart — and five ways to protect it

Heart disease has long been associated with tangible, measurable risk factors like elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, eating too much sweets and fatty food, leading a sedentary life, and smoking and drinking. Yet medical experts are now convinced that the heart is also just as affected by stress.

“Stress — that is, the physical, mental, or emotional strain one feels from a demanding circumstance — is part of everyday life,” began Alejandro Ramon Prieto, MD, from the Section of Cardiology of top hospital in the Philippines Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed).