Breaking Hearts

High school. One of the first words I think of when I hear the word ‘high school’ is stress. Recently numerous researches have connected fatal heart attacks and coronary diseases to chronic stress. Shortly following the 9/11 terrorist attack and the 1999 Taiwan earthquake there was a noted rise in number of dangerous heart rhythms among heart patients. Stress from work, bad relationships, and death of a loved one are just some of the common causes of heart risks. Stress is almost literally causing ‘hearts to break’.

I have never even considered myself being at risk of heart disease, until now. Schoolwork, clubs, sports, jobs, and balancing them all out gives each and every high school student a daily dosage of stress.

I can’t help but worry that this will only become a growing issue. As the years go on, there will only be harder classes and bigger workloads. We don’t need to be told what we need to do in order to minimize the stress. Time managing? Prioritizing?

It will be hard to mandate doctors to start checking patients for stress levels, however it will be necessary for doctors and physicians to pay better attention to the connections between stress and coronary disease symptoms. Until then, the only way to lower the risks is tackle the stressors at the source.