In women with heart disease, constriction of peripheral vessels during mental stress affects the heart circulation more than men’s, potentially raising women’s risk of heart-related events and death, according to new research in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, an American Heart Association (AHA) journal.
In most people, mental stress causes peripheral vessels to constrict. In people with heart disease, this effect can cause a reduction in blood supply to the heart muscle called “ischemia.”