Stress management is an appealing concept and makes sense for a person's overall health. However, the available data don't yet support specific recommendations for its use as a proven therapy for cardiovascular disease. Stress can refer to physical effort as well as mental tension. It's almost impossible to define a high level of emotional or psychological stress.
All people feel stress, but they feel it in different amounts and react to it in different ways.
A growing body of scientific evidence points to a relationship between the risk of cardiovascular disease and environmental and psychosocial factors - such as job strain, social isolation and personality traits. However, little is known of any specific mechanism by which stress contributes to heart disease risk. Acute and chronic stress may affect other coronary risk factors and behaviors, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking, physical inactivity and overeating. Few data are available on the role of stress in heart disease risk among women and minority populations. And only a limited number of studies have examined how well treatment or therapy works to reduce the effects of stress on cardiovascular disease.