I recently had a terrible disagreement with someone and everytime I think about it I start shaking and my heart starts pounding from adrenaline, which according to Google is unhealthy. But our hearts are accelerated when exercising, which is supposed to be a good thing – so what is the difference?
In: Biology
Think of your blood vessels as the plumbing for a house. Exercising requires blood to flow to different muscles, much like opening up multiple water valves in a house to turn on the sprinklers, wash clothes, run the dishwasher, and take a shower at the same time. More water gets pumped from your water main (heart) to do all those things.
When you’re stressed or angry, without doing anything, the blood pressure has no where to go. It’s like having more water pressure in your plumbing pipes without any exits. Over time, this can damage the pipes and lead to bigger issues. Chronic high blood pressure can injure your blood vessels.
This is why exercise is a good thing to do when you feel stressed or angry as an outlet for your increased heart rate and blood pressure.
I know this isn’t what you were asking, but op, I’d strongly suggest looking up some CBT strategies. I have anxiety, wich sometimes manifests as a roaring anger, and I’ve found some really good self help resources online that can help with stuff like that. meditation tools work really well to, to bring you back into the moment and out of negetive thought cycles.
Lot of misleading information here – the truth is there really ain’t a good way to make this ELI5 – but I’ll try my best. (Credentials – I put people to sleep for a living).
From a functional standpoint elevated heart rate is no different on the heart wether it’s from stress or exercise when it comes to rate.
Elevated heart rate is dangerous with an already diseased heart for two reasons. First, pumping fast requires more oxygen and if you have a problem delivering oxygenated blood at baseline (coronary artery disease), increasing the requirement of oxygen will make the muscle ischemic (injures due to lack of oxygen). Second, the heart is perfused (blood flows into the muscle) during the resting period of the cardiac cycle (diastole). The faster your heart beats, the less resting and the less blood that flows to the muscle.
The body releases a chemical when stressed (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that both increase heart rate (stimulate beta-1) and increase blood pressure (stimulate alpha-1). Making your heart use even more oxygen as it has to push against a higher pressure.
This happens with exercise and stress – so it can be dangerous to exercise with already very high blood pressure. There is nothing magical about stress on the heart when it comes to exercise vs stress.
Long term exercise leads to demand changes in the heart that make it better able to deal with the increased oxygen demand of expected continuous exercise. Stress also releases a host of other inflammatory hormones that are contributory you high BP and heart disease.
The main idea here is overtime the cause of the stress matters but in a Single session there is little difference.
Doesn’t it have more to do with cortisol being released during anxiety/stress, and not necessarily the blood pulse? High Cortisol levels will do a number on your psyche.
Okay but please, I have to know what this disagreement is about?!
The heart beating fast is exercising it, so let’s compare it to normal exercise.
Say you have an overweight gentleman who never excercise and you force him to fun a couple miles by, say, having an angry bear chase him. Or insert whatever thing that will force him to fun. He will be barely able to breath, might just drop to the ground unable to move, and if he does make it the whole way will be so stiff and sore that he might not be able to move properly for days.
Anger/anxiety is like that. You are exercising a system and pushing it far past is it used to withstanding.. Things are going to start to break down.
Now take the same person and have him start running every day. He’s still running right? But he can gradually ramp up, get stronger, and soon he can run the same distance with ease and no ill effects.
Raising the heart during exercsie is excercsising the heart as well as the body, training it and making it stronger. It’s not the same as just suddenly pushing it way beyond what it’s used to all at once.
A high heart rate is a symptom, not a condition, and as such is neither good nor bad.
The underlying factors link to stress and anxiety that also can elevate heart rate are bad for you.
Similarly, cardiovascular exercise that also elevates your heart rate is good for you.
I have monitored my heart rate daily for years. When I get that perception that my heart is pounding out of my chest from anxiety, anger, or stress…turns out my heart rate isn’t even elevated. Go figure.
Haven’t read all the responses here so forgive me if I’m repeating others, but on some level, fast HR and high BP are not *inherently* harmful, if we are just merely talking about the numbers themselves. There are certain mixed messages out there about numbers themselves being harmful in the absence of other risk factors, e.g. “you’re going to die if your systolic blood pressure is over 180,” this is mostly untrue and misleading. (within reason of course, I’m sure there are ridiculous numbers you could throw at me that would be exceptions)
The problem is constant and sustained HR and BP which cause damage to the heart over time. The damage to the heart itself is the critical variable here. This is what leads to critical cardiac events and eventually possible injury or death.
I know I didn’t quite answer your question about the difference between different causes of BP/HR spikes, I’m sure there are differences. In the big picture though, the goal isn’t to maintain a low blood pressure 24/7, it’s to keep the resting blood pressure low, and to ensure the overall curve isn’t too high.
It’s also due to the “flight or fight” hormone cortisol burning through your system. Too much of that stuff in a steady diet of stress and anger, and your body takes a real beating. Think Type A’s and all their heart attacks. Not good.
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