NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: There's clear evidence that people who are the so-called Type-A personality, and that's not a general thing. That's not somebody who's just under stress. There are specific indicators of what is a Type-A personality, some of which are perfectionism, time pressure, and a number of other things. But people who are Type-A personality, clearly are at much higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. We've found that the mind plays a powerful role in the coronary arteries, and in the rhythms of the heart as well.
LISA CLARK: There's something that your body releases when you are in a state of stress.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: It's actually adrenaline, or nor-epinephrine and epinephrine. These are the fight or flight hormones, and they are adaptive for when we had to run away from dinosaurs. Not that we ever coexisted with dinosaurs.
LISA CLARK: You'll be getting calls on that one.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: Don't call me. But they also speed up the heart rate, increase the blood pressure, constrict the arteries. And, clearly, in animal models, animals that are under chronic physiologic stress develop heart disease.
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: One of the other things that they do is, the effect on the immune system, not just from the adrenal gland, but from many different parts of immunity, that we're now learning are in many different parts of the body. That's really important, because one of the possibilities of some kinds of heart disease, may relate to immune system dysfunction, and even the possibility that certain bacteria increase the amount of disease. So stress can make a difference in an enormous number of different ways.
