Blood clots in 'healthy' hearts are mainly caused by burnout
Vital exhaustion is the most common cause of blood clots in healthy men and the second most common cause in women, Danish research concludes.
A healthy man in his 40s with a fast-paced career suffers a blood clot in his heart during a jog and dies. It seems incomprehensible. After all, the man lived a healthy life...
Danish researchers now have a possible explanation for why 'healthy' people suddenly collapse and die: The answer is burnout.
That is, chronic stress that has developed over a long period of time into mental and physical (vital) exhaustion that does not resolve like stress, even if you take a long period of time off. There is a feeling of hopelessness, often anxiety, and that the body's 'battery' is running low.
Eradicate burnout and save lives
Since 1976, researchers have followed almost 20,000 Danes in the special Østerbro study.
- "If burnout could be avoided, the number of blood clots in women would fall by 28% and by 21% in men, who are generally slightly weaker than women," cardiologist Peter Schnohr told DR Viden.
1731 blood clots in 8882 'healthy' people
Over the past 50 years, many population studies have shown that high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol, obesity and lack of exercise increase the risk of atherosclerotic heart disease, or blood clots.
On average, the researchers followed the participants for 21.5 years, and by reviewing the 1731 cases of blood clots in the 8882 healthy participants and comparing them with multiple health examinations, the researchers can see a clear trend.
Psychosocial causes of blood clots
When ranking the risk factors by size in women, smoking is at the top, followed by burnout, low HDL cholesterol and high blood pressure.
- 'We often see cardiologists see so-called healthy people get a blood clot in their heart, and we now understand that the cause must be psychosocial,' says Peter Schnohr.
Medical examinations and questionnaires
Over the years, the researchers have repeatedly examined the health of the participants through blood tests, weight, height, blood pressure and cardiogram.
Diabetic patients have been excluded because they are known to be at high risk of heart attacks, and people who have been diagnosed with heart problems have been excluded. In this way, the figures have been cleaned of patient groups that would interfere with the conclusions of the research.
Alongside the surveys, participants were asked to fill in various questionnaires about smoking, alcohol, leisure-time physical activity, hereditary heart disease, education and social contact with others. They were also asked to report any special events that could have an impact.
17 questions on burnout
At the same time, participants had to answer 17 questions indicating whether they suffered from mild, medium, severe or no vital fatigue.
- We can see that if they answer yes to all questions, they die like flies," says Peter Schnohr.
- Burnout is worse than stress because you have both mental and physical problems - you are weak. You're really flat in one way and another. It's often because of too much work," he says.
Burnout should be included in health check-ups
From the research results, it can be seen that psychosocial factors, especially burnout (vital exhaustion), are a high risk factor for blood clots in the heart.
Today, when health services assess risk factors for atherosclerotic heart disease - blood clots in the heart - they usually only check blood pressure, cholesterol levels and whether people smoke.
The research results are published in the European Heart Journal 2015.
