To what extent is heart disease caused by modern technology and stress

The ever evolving technology has brought about changes in people’s lifestyles. Technology has grown at a faster pace over the recent past changing the way people work and carry on their day to day lives. Stress is yet another problem that many people face as they try to meet their daily obligations in advancing their livelihoods. Recently, modern technology and stress are considered to be one of the factors that have negative impacts on the heart. They may as well lead to much serious disease such as coronary heart diseases. These two factors are closely associated as some of the causes of heart diseases that many people suffer from. Lack of exercises has also contributed to the ever increasing cases of heart diseases. This essay will first demonstrate the causes and effect of coronary heart disease, which has a relationship with stress, hypertension (high blood pressure) and finally the extent of modern technology and stress on heart disease.

Causes and effects of coronary heart diseases

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is not a direct risk factor for heart disease, however stress and technology is one of the causes of which lead to (CHD). According to Lilly, many studies show that indeed a combination of high cholesterol and chronic stress can lead to heart diseases if no urgent correctional measures are instituted (23). This is also supported with the continued advice from the medics that people should cut off their level of stress to avoid development or complexion that may affect their health. Chronic stress affects the level of cholesterol in our body system which eventually leads to development of heart diseases. Therefore, an individual’s lifestyle contribute a lot to the development of heart diseases.

Stress in human beings is triggered as a result of fear of a perceived harm, or due to the demands that are before us such as work loads and personal issues. During such occasions, our body reacts differently by triggering hypothalamus gland that is located near the brain to release hormones- cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones speed up the rate of our heart beat which leads to release of more energy hence increasing the rate of blood flow to the brain. This triggers the body to react in a different way either to run or face the challenge before the individual (Peter 3). Cortisol and adrenaline helps the liver production of cholesterol which helps in production of energy. However, when the level of cholesterol produced is high, it clogs or blocks the arteries that supplies blood to the heart leading to heart attack and or stroke and such like related diseases. Stress hormones functions in away to either trigger confrontation or an escape situation. Therefore, the current lifestyle which does not allow physical confrontation or an escape makes the fat tissues to accumulate in the body leading to heart related ailments.

Another way that stress can lead to heart related diseases is situations where sugar that is produced in stressful situation is not consumed by the body or is not converted to fatty acids/ triglycerides. This leads to deposition of fats in the body systems that end up piling in the abdomen of an individual. These abdominal fats cause a higher risk of a person developing cardiovascular diseases and others such as diabetes.

This, therefore, demonstrates that indeed stress is a major course of some heart diseases. This is attributable to the day to day hustles of life as people try to make ends meet. It is difficult to avoid stressful situations and most of these ailments arise without person knowledge while others arise due to the unavoidable circumstances that come with life.

Technology is one major area that has seen many lifestyles of people change. Nowadays, people are able to accomplish most of their tasks and work at the comfort of their homes. Many businesses are being transacted through the internet and other advanced technologies such as iphones, iPods, computers and many other advanced technologies. Most people have embraced this new technology but many have also failed to take time to understand a how these technologies work and how effective to use them to avoid some of its setbacks that comes with its adoption (Obe 56). With the embracement of technology, stress has also tended to rise among many individuals due to higher expectations by their employers. Many people working using technology are expected to ensure that they improve their productivity levels to meet the expectations of their boss. This requires a lot of input and sometime sacrifice that leads to development of stress. Technology, even though guarantees some level of speed and efficiency, it has increased the level of stress among the employees. People work hard to use the opportunity that the technology provided without giving it a second thought on the repercussions of such trend. Take an example of someone, who spends his/her day sitting before a computer. This makes the personal stressful and therefore may lead to development of complications such as increase in body weight that may eventually lead to development of cardiovascular complexions.

Those workers who work with heavy machineries are always required to be alert to ensure that such machines functions effectively. Such workers together with their families live under mental stress that may affect their body functioning. Such work pressures affect proper functioning of the body system as they require close attentions and learning of every new the developments.

Technology has also led to change in people lifestyle. In the past, people used to for example walk to their working place, eat foods that were not processed and were not highly stressed up due to the challenges in life. Technology has changed the way people operate. These changes have led to stress on the heart. The kind of diets that people take is also one of the contributors to the disease of heart. Most of floods consumed are processed from industries. This has been facilitated through the advancement of technology. Such foods contain some chemicals that are not appropriate for proper functioning of our body systems and ends up causing complications of the heart. In addition, technology has also made it difficult for people to exercise. People are able to operate and work at the comfort of their homes and therefore they are always pre-occupied and therefore fail to engage in exercise. This lack of body exercise leads to deposition of more fatty acids in the body that clogs the free flow f blood in the heart leading to heart diseases.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) can be counteracted through many ways. One of the ways to counter such disease is to change our lifestyles such as stopping drinking and smoking, doing physical exercises and ensuring that we take appropriate diets to ensure that our body systems functions well (Obe 32). Another important thing to do is to try to manage our stress. We need to stop being stressed so that the level of cholesterol in our body systems does not cause clogging.

Coronary heart disease is one of the major causes of death and is increasing due to poor diet brought about by technology. People need to change their diet, and improve blood lipid and lipoprotein concentration to lower the risks of developing coronary heart diseases.

It is no doubt that coronary heart disease could be as a result of technology and stress. The diseases are becoming one of the world mostly killer diseases and therefore needs urgent measures to curb its escalation.

Hypertension

Hypertension also called high blood pressure is becoming a major public health problem in most western industrialized countries. This is a condition that results from a scenario where the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated or is high. Blood in the arteries pushes against the blood vessels therefore making the heart to work harder to pump the blood to other areas of the body. This may result to damages and other related illnesses leading to diseases; such as heart attack, heart failure and even stroke (Lilly 34). Normal level of blood pressure is supposed to be below 120/80, where120 represents peak pressure in arteries while 80 represent minimum blood pressure in the arteries. According to Peter many people are suffering from hypertensions and the number is increasing each and every day (34). For instance, 50 millions of Americans suffer from hypertension (Peter 35). This statistics is alarming and needs a quick measure to correct the situation. The bad lifestyles in most western industrialized countries are cited to be the core reason for the higher number of people suffering from these diseases. However, this disease can be treated by people changing their lifestyles and especially by improving on their dietary.

Even though many people suffer from high blood pressure, lack of knowledge on its causes rank at the top as a detrimental factor for the ever increasing number. Government needs to intervene and create awareness to the public to enable them change their eating habits for them to ensure that they maintain good health.

The extent of modern technology and stress on heart disease

Stress and technology is directly related to what the activities that people engage in. Even though no substantial evidence shows that stress causes heart diseases, there are substantial evidences that link stress to the disease (British Hear Foundation 4). Stress comes about through individual lifestyles. For instance, those people suffering from coronary heart disease and at the same time suffering from stress exhibit symptoms that resemble that of angina (Durstine, Moore, Painter, & Roberts 23). Negative use of technology has also seen many people suffer or develop coronary heart diseases. This is due to change if lifestyles, lack of physical exercise, based diet among many other causes.

To sum up, there are multiplicities of solutions to these problems. These solutions vary from one country to another. Furthermore, it should be well defined that stress and technology have brought many challenges that needs to be approached and handled well to alleviate distastrous outcomes.

Modern technology and stress such as hypertension has affected all facets of society across the globe. This is due to adoption of different lifestyles and the demand of life that brings stress to individuals. Lack of exercise and bad diets are some of the major causes of heart diseases. Furthermore, individual habits contribute to the heart diseases. Many people have succumbed to death as a result of heart diseases. Due to increasing number of deaths resulting from hypertension and coronary heart disease, more research is underway by scientists in America and around the globe to find out the exact causes and best ways to alleviate the problem. There is no doubt, therefore that modern technology and stress has different effects in different nations. Most heart diseases are attributable to individual lifestyles and therefore people should take the mantle by themselves by re-examining on their diets and physical exercises.

References

British Heart Foundation.’’ Stress and heart disease’’ Available from: http://www.bhf.org.uk/heart health/prevention/stress.aspx?pid=g&gclid=CIzrqOfr3K4CFUQhtAod3z1yXg [Accessed: 10th of March, 2011]

Durstine, J. L., Moore, G.E., Painter, P.L., & Roberts, S.O. (2009) ‘’Exercise management for Persons with Chronic Diseases and Disabilities’’. 3rd ed. American college of sports medicine.

Lilly, L.S (2007).’’ Pathophysoiology of Heart Disease’’. 4th ed. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Obe, M.A. (1997). “Diet and Heart Disease a round table of factors’’. 2nd ed.Chapman and Hall. ISBN 0412791307

Peter, C. (2009). What is hypertension? What causes hypertension? Retrieved from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/150109.php