Reducing Election Day stress

Today's elections will have millions of Americans keeping their eyes on results late into the night. A recent Kaiser Permanente study looked at 6.4 million Californians in the days after the 2020 presidential election and found that heart attacks were 42 percent higher and heart failure hospitalization shot up 18 percent. Joining us now to share tips on reducing election day stress is Dr. Rita Ng, cardiologist and physician-in-chief at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland's medical center. Doctor, welcome back. Thank you. That's kind of a rattling statistic. It is. It is quite dramatic. And, you know, if you really think about it, that means that there were four extra heart attacks for every 10 adults in America after the elections. First of all, what can be done? Because I know that everyone does get passionate, but you have to be able to, you know, keep it within check. What if you, you know, you being a doctor and you say, what can I do to keep my stress level down? Yes. There is a very tight correlation and connection between the heart, mind, and body. Right. And so emotions play a big part in this. When we are stressed, our heart senses it and it responds. So this means higher heart rates, higher blood pressure. If you are prone already to mental health issues or known cardiovascular disease, it's going to impact you. But how would you know if you're prone to, let's say, cardiovascular issues if you've never had an issue? Yes. So always knowing sort of what are the warning signs of a heart attack is the key thing I tell people. So in the most classic cases, you're going to have left-sided. It's severe chest pain or trouble breathing when you're trying to do normal activities like walking to the mailbox or picking the kids up from school, for example. You should know your body, know your stats, and obviously be visiting your primary care doctor when you can. A heart attack, can it happen even if you're calm? I think that the... You know, maybe you were stressed out earlier in the day, but now you said you're picking up your kids, maybe you're calm. Can it still happen then? Yes, so heart attacks can happen in a lot of different forms, and I want to distinguish every twinge or chest pain isn't necessarily a heart attack. So we talk about heart attacks when there's a blockage in one of the blood vessels, and that can be exacerbated by stress. So we're talking about elections today. That can be a very stressful time for people. Millions of people potentially are scrolling and updating their phones. Every moment, taking a moment, getting a little bit of rest, trying to relax, go out and take a walk, put those phones down, that will definitely help your heart. You mentioned this kind of mirrors what would happen during a natural disaster or maybe even if your sports team is in the championship, right? Yes. I'm so glad the Valkyries won. Right. So we know that during times of stress, your body releases a higher amount of stress cortisol. Cortisol can have a higher inflammatory impact on our bodies, including all those things I talked about, higher heart rates, higher blood pressures, et cetera. That puts more strain on your body. And so when your heart has to deal with more strain, it's going to require more blood and oxygen. And if there's blockages in that plumbing of your heart, you're going to have an issue. What about being in better shape so that the everyday stresses can affect you? Not affect you, but it will affect you to the point where you'll have a heart attack. In other words, look, you can't eliminate stress from your life. I think it's impossible. But can you fortify your body to deal with it better when it happens? I love that you're asking this. So slow and steady wins the race. We talk about making sure you're maintaining your health every day. And so what is that? That's eating healthy. That's not smoking. That's being very conscious about what type of exercise you're doing. So we typically say 30 to 50 minutes, a couple times a week, will actually reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke by 50%. That's remarkable. That's almost better than any medication I can give you. If you have something like diabetes, go see your primary care doctor to get that under control. Things like watching your weight and other things, as well as mental health and having a good social network. It sounds like you want people to see their doctors and start with primary care doctor, right? Yeah, so at Kaiser Permanente, we always talk a lot about preventative health, right? An ounce of cure is actually, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. So if you can take care of your body before you run into those problems, particularly if you know you have a family history of heart disease or mental health, go see your doctor. We would love to see you. Get in shape. Get your medications checked out. Check all your stats. All right, Dr. Rita Ng, cardiologist and physician-in-chief at Kaiser Permanente Oakland. Thank you for joining us.