Earthquakes: Heart attack link found
A large increase in heart attacks in the first four days after a major earthquake has been observed over time, according to the secretary general of the Hellenic Heart Foundation (ELIKAR), Dimitris Richter.
Speaking to the FM news agency, Richter said acute stress is linked to the likelihood of heart attack.
“In earthquakes, the two best records we have are both from the 1981 earthquake in Greece, (published in The Lancet by the Professor D. Trichopoulos) and the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake (New England Journal of Medicine), where we saw a very large increase in heart attacks over the next two to four days.
These are two important publications that are always a reference for anyone writing about stress and the heart,” he noted, explaining that psychological stress affects hormones.
“When we fill our body with adrenaline, it is likely to rupture an atherosclerotic plaque. At the same time there is a spasm of the blood vessel, so we secrete a flood of hormones… so the more vulnerable or unlucky someone is, the more the chances of an acute episode,” he underlined.
