Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disease that affects your heart and makes the heart muscle thicker. Thicker muscle has a harder time pumping blood, which is your heart’s main job.
Many people with HCM inherit a gene from one or both of their parents. When you have HCM, you may not have any symptoms. But you may also feel a fluttering sensation in your chest (heart palpitations) or chest pain and shortness of breath during exercise.
The stress your heart feels during exercise is similar to how it feels when you feel emotional and mental stress. All of these types of stress put strain on your heart.
What Is Stress?
Stress is your body’s natural reaction to pressure. Things that cause stress can be physical, emotional, and mental. You might feel stress in response to any number of things, including:
- Trauma, abuse
- Illness
- Pressure at work
- Financial troubles
- Discrimination
- Big life changes
- Lack of control
When you feel stress, your body releases adrenaline, a hormone that triggers certain changes to happen in your body, such as:
- Increased heart rate
- Increased blood pressure
- Increased blood sugar
You may also have emotional changes in response to stress, such as frustration, anxiety, anger, or depression.
Stress itself is a normal part of life. In fact, you need some level of stress in order to react appropriately to certain situations. For example, when you have a test or big project at work coming up, your body’s stress response can help you work harder and stay awake longer if needed.
Stress helps keep you alert, motivated, and prepared to avoid danger. This is sometimes called your “fight or flight” response.
Too much stress over long periods of time can become a problem for your body. When you’re feeling stress for too long without relief, it can have a negative effect on your mental and physical health. This can be especially true for your heart health.
How Does Stress Affect Your Heart?
Stress affects everyone’s heart, not just people living with HCM. But these effects can have an especially big impact on your health when you have HCM. Stress triggers or amplifies symptoms like dizziness, fainting, or fatigue, making it harder to manage the condition.
Stress can impact your HCM in many different ways including:
Increases your heart rate and blood pressure. Your thickened heart muscle already struggles to pump your blood and may obstruct your blood flow. When your heart rate and blood pressure go up, symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, and palpitations can get worse.
Raises your risk of arrhythmias. Arrhythmias are abnormal heart rhythms. They include atrial fibrillation (Afib), which starts in your heart’s upper chambers, or ventricular fibrillation (Vfib), which happens in the lower chambers and can be life threatening. Vfib is more common in people with HCM.
Reduces oxygen delivery. As your heart rate increases, your breathing rate increases. This type of shallow breathing can limit the amount of oxygen your tissues are getting. This is especially problematic when HCM is already reducing your heart function.
Lead to unhealthy habits. Stress often leads to unhealthy behaviors. Dealing with stress can make it harder to eat a healthy diet, get regular exercise, or sleep well, which can negatively impact your heart health.
Take Stock of Your Stress Levels
If you’ve been dealing with high levels of stress for a while, it may be hard to recognize that it’s affecting you. But if you pause and take an intentional look at your physical state, you may see some clues that you’re operating at unhealthy stress levels.
You can ask yourself:
- Have I been having general aches and pains I can’t explain?
- Are my symptoms of HCM worse than usual?
- Am I sleeping poorly?
- Have I been having headaches lately?
- Have I been forgetful lately?
- Is my blood pressure high?
- Have I been having tension in my jaw like I've been clenching it?
- Am I having trouble with digestion?
- Am I having difficulty with sex?
- Have I been getting sick more often?
- Am I getting rashes or hives?
If your answer is yes to several of these questions, you may be dealing with chronically high stress that could be harming your heart. The good news is, there are ways to soothe your stress and live at lower stress levels.
Stress-Lowering Practices
One of the best ways to manage your stress levels is recognizing what’s causing your stress in the first place. Once you identify your triggers, you can work on avoiding or reducing them.
In addition, you can adopt healthy habits that promote lower stress.
Practice relaxation techniques
Relaxation techniques are exercises such as:
- Deep breathing
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- Tai chi
- Yoga
These activities can slow your breathing, which can regulate your heart rate and blood sugar, ease muscle tension, increase blood flow, and reduce your anxiety. Some of these are activities you can do on your own, and others you may want to be guided through. There are apps and videos that can show you how to do them.
Get good sleep
Good sleep hygiene can help lower stress levels and support overall cardiovascular health. Sleep hygiene is the term for all the practices you do to promote quality sleep. Healthy sleep hygiene includes:
- Keep a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.
- Sleep in a room that’s free of distractions, without screens or lights.
- Keep your bedroom on the cool side.
- Don’t overdo it with naps.
- Avoid caffeine and heavy meals late in the day.
- Spend 30 minutes winding down before you sleep with soft music, stretching, or whatever relaxes you.
- Restrict your bed for sleep and sex only — no work.
- Drown out noise with ear plugs if it keeps you up.
Exercise regularly
Get your doctor's approval before doing any kind of physical activity. Light-to-moderate exercise is best for most people with HCM, although some people can handle vigorous exercise. Doctors describe moderate exercise as walking at a pace that makes your breathing increase slightly but doesn’t keep you from having a conversation.
Eat foods that support your health
Avoid caffeine and alcohol, and load up on high-nutrition foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and heart-healthy fats. Maintaining a healthy weight for your frame is also key for managing stress levels.
Care for your mental health
Therapy, counseling, or joining a support group for people with heart conditions can provide emotional support and stress management strategies. Support groups can also be good options for connecting with others and creating a social outlet. Or if you prefer time alone, try journaling to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper.
Ask about medication
You may need prescription medications such as beta-blockers or calcium channel blockers that help the heart not to work as hard. This can help manage the symptoms of HCM as well as stress-related heart responses. Ask your doctor if this could be an option for you.
Have fun
Make time to do the things you enjoy. Prioritize fun. Take note of how often you smile or laugh in a day and see if you can make that number go up. Studies show laughter can reduce stress by increasing blood flow and boosting your immunity.
Show Sources
Photo Credit: Moment/Getty Images
SOURCES:
Mayo Clinic: “Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy,” “Relaxation Techniques,” “Keep Stress from Hurting Your Heart.”
Cleveland Clinic: “Stress Test,” “Dyspnea.”
Mind: “What Causes Stress?”
National Cancer Institute: “Stress.”
Heart Rhythm: “Ventricular arrhythmias in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: Prevalence, distribution, predictors, and outcome.”
Sleep Foundation: “Sleep Hygiene.”
American Heart Association: “Is exercise safe for people with an inherited heart condition?”
NYU Langone Health: “Medication for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.”
Colorado Law: “25 Quick Ways to Reduce Stress.”
