- Researchers report that early life stress may contribute to cardiometabolic disease in adulthood.
- That’s because high levels of stress hormones may contribute to heart disease.
- Experts say there are many ways parents can help their children understand and cope with stress.
Stress during adolescence and early adulthood may contribute to the development of cardiometabolic disease later in life,
To reach their findings, researchers examined health information for 276 participants in the Southern California Children’s Health Study from 2003 to 2014, as well as follow-up assessments from 2018 to 2021.
Participants’ perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale, with questions about their thoughts and feelings in the previous month. Assessments were conducted at three life stages: childhood (mean age 6 years), adolescence (mean age 13 years), and young adulthood (mean age 24 years).
During childhood, parents provided information about their children’s stress levels; during adolescence and adulthood, responses were self-reported.
The researchers divided the participants into four groups.
- Constantly high stress
- Reduce stress
- Increased stress
- Consistently low stress
The scientists used six different markers to determine the cardiometabolic risk score in young adults.
Participants received one point for each marker above the normal range. The scientists didn’t use BMI to calculate the risk score, because body fat percentage and male/female ratio provided an overall assessment.
The final score ranges from 0 to 5, with higher scores indicating higher cardiometabolic risk factors.
Researchers found that adults who experience high levels of stress, especially those who experienced high stress levels during adolescence, are more likely to develop cardiometabolic risk factors in young adulthood. For example, high levels of stress are associated with thickening of the arteries in the neck, increased blood vessel damage, and increased markers of hypertrophy that suggest atherosclerosis.
“This study underscores the idea that stress reduction should be a component of our public health strategy,” said Dr. Samir Amin, a cardiologist and chief medical officer at LA Care Health Plan, who was not involved in the study.
“As we all suspect, high stress can lead to lifestyle choices that are detrimental to cardiometabolic health. When stress is unaddressed, healthy eating and regular exercise are often neglected,” Amin said. Today’s Medical News.
Experts say the findings suggest that promoting stress-coping strategies in childhood could reduce the risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases in adulthood.
“We’ve known for some time that stress can increase the risk of cardiovascular sequelae, including high blood pressure, heart attack and congestive heart failure,” said Dr. Hosam Humoud, a cardiologist at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the study.
“This paper sought to quantify the relationship between stress experienced during childhood, adolescence and adulthood and cardiometabolic risk factors such as blood pressure, obesity and narrowing of the carotid artery, a key artery that supplies blood to the brain,” Humood said. Today’s Medical News“Interestingly, increased stress during adolescence has been linked to higher rates of obesity and, in adults, increased levels of blood pressure and carotid intimal thickening. Whether these cardiometabolic risk factors translate into higher incidence of stroke, heart attack, and/or congestive heart failure remains to be determined.”
“There are some subtleties in this paper that need to be kept in mind. The subjective nature of stress perception and the lack of consideration of familial inheritance may confound the paper’s findings,” Hmud added. “It would be interesting to correlate the above findings with blood levels of HS-CRP, a known marker of inflammation. Further research is needed to better understand how stress affects our body from a cardiometabolic perspective.”
“This study doesn’t look at why early life stress would affect health at age 40,” says Dr. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist at National Jewish Health who was not involved in the study. “My hypothesis is that people who have a history of chronic stress going back to childhood may have maladaptive ways of dealing with stress.”
“There could be a myriad of reasons why a 40-year-old with a particular health condition might continue to have a habit. People who had trouble dealing with stress as children are likely to have trouble dealing with stress as adults,” Freeman said. Today’s Medical News.
“During childhood and adolescence, the brain and body are still developing, and stress can disrupt these processes,” said Dr. Daniel Ganjian, a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in California, who was not involved in the study.
“Chronic stress causes changes in stress hormone levels, inflammation and other biological factors that increase the risk of disease. Children and adolescents may have fewer coping skills and resources to manage stress effectively,” Gunjan said. Today’s Medical News.
“While this study highlights the potentially harmful effects of chronic stress, it’s not all doom and gloom. Resilience is a key factor in helping people cope with stress, and there is a lot we can do to increase resilience in children and young people,” he noted.
“We need to accept that we live in a stressful world,” Freeman says, “and parents have a role to play in helping their children develop stress-relief strategies.”
Ganjian suggests some healthy strategies.
“Eating a healthy diet is essential,” Freeman added. “Everyone has their own way of relieving stress, it’s important to figure out what works for you and act on it. Many people find meditation and yoga helpful.”
Watching, reading or listening to the news or scrolling through social media can point out all the problems in the world and cause stress, she said.
Children can be overwhelmed by traumatic events they see or hear about on television, even if they have not experienced them themselves. Children may not understand what they are watching, but they are still stressed.
The CDC offers these tips for parents:
- Maintain your normal lifestyle.
- It encourages speaking, listening and expression.
- Pay attention to changes in behavior.
- Reassure your child that they are safe.
- Work with the school and other parents to find ways for your child to connect and talk to others.
“Parents should foster a living environment that encourages open communication with their children,” Humoud said. “In the age of social media, it is important for parents to teach their children how to use these platforms appropriately so as not to add to an already stressful environment.”
