People who have undergone the traumatic stressful phase immediately after the September 11 terrorist attack in the United States still have greater risks of having heart and other cardiovascular problems even after three subsequent years.

Explaining the reasons responsible for such effects the researchers propounded that the events were extremely stressful and this might have precipitated the biological processes causing an increase in “one’s risks of developing cardiovascular ailments”. Dr.E. Alison Holman at the University of California conducted this study.
Acute stress often makes a triggering impact on the cardiovascular responses of any individual and this impact is potentially lethal in nature. The responses to different stages of stress like acute, sub-acute, and chronic stress increases the cardiovascular risks in gradual manner through the neurohormonal arousal in the body. It is more like earthquake after shocks. The trauma reminders, in the same fashion, affect the physiologic reactivity. People who have suffered through such events are therefore “vulnerable to the detrimental effects of arousal over time”.

This research study involved 2,729 people in all. Health profiles of 2,592 of these people were collected by the researchers before the September 11, incident. Researchers conducted a web-based survey after nine to fifteen days of the attacks and recorded their responses about acute stress levels, anxiety, feelings of detachment from the world, and other dissociative symptoms. Final stage survey was conducted after three year’s period on all these participants.

Findings of this research study revealed that there was an increase of almost 9% in the people who were diagnosed having a heart ailment after a period of three years of the attacks. Acute stress responses associated with the attacks also increased by 53% for cardiovascular ailments over the same period of three years.

The study findings show that the people who suffered through a high level of acute stress immediately after the terrorist attacks did have two times the risks of having high blood pressure and hypertension. The risk and probability of having diagnosed a heart problem for a period of 36 months after the terrorist attacks was found to be three times.

The individuals who reported that they have unstopping worries about such terrorist activities also had acute stress levels and the researchers predicted them to be at high risk for heart problems all through the three years period.

The research study concludes with an observation that the “acute stress reactions may be predictors of subsequent serious health problems.”

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