Contact: Catherine M. Stoney, PhD
stoney.1@osu.edu
(614) 292-0588

Clues to Heart Disease Seen in Cholesterol Reactions to Stress

Healthy young men whose mothers and/or fathers suffered heart attacks react to major stressors with elevated blood levels of cholesterol and other lipids that may predict cardiovascular illness and death, new research shows.

Elevated blood concentrations of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol have been associated with increased illness and death from heart disease, especially in combination with low concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Catherine M. Stoney, PhD, and Joel W. Hughes of the Ohio State University Department of Psychology conducted the study, the first to examine relationships between parental history of cardiovascular disease and atherogenic lipid reactivity under stress. They report their findings in the current issue of Psychophysiology.

"We chose only men for the investigation because men generally have greater lipid reactions to stressors than do women and because family history of heart attack is particularly predictive of mortality among men," Stoney said.

In the study, 22 college-aged men with no parental history of heart attack and 15 men with one or both parents who had suffered heart attack took a laboratory stress test individually in which they were falsely accused of shoplifting and had to defend themselves in the store's security office. Their speeches where videorecorded, and they were told they would be rated for poise, articulation and appearance.

Although both groups showed significant increases in all of the lipids during the stressor, those men with a family history of heart attack had significantly larger total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol concentrations during stress.

"These data are especially intriguing because total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol are strongly associated with increased risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease," Stoney said.

She added, "Although speculative, the results support the hypothesis that lipid reactivity to stress has potential implications for the development and progression of cardiovascular disease. We hope that understanding these factors will enhance our ability to control the progression of the disease."

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Ohio State University General Clinical Research Center.

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Psychophysiology is the official peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. For information about the journal, contact its editor, Gregory A. Miller, PhD, (217) 333-6312.