Your patients are worrying themselves sick, literally

Don’t be a worry wart—it increases the risk of heart disease.

A new study published in the journal BMJ Open found that health anxiety—an obsession with thoughts of having, getting or dodging illness—is linked to a 70 percent higher risk of heart disease.

Researchers at the University of Bergen and Sandviken University Hospital and Norway looked at data from more than 7,000 people in a long-term Norwegian healthy study who had answered questionnaires and had had a physical around 1997. They were measured on a health anxiety scale. Researchers also tracked heart health of participants by studying national hospital and death data through 2009.

Approximately 3 percent of people developed ischemic heart disease, but 6 percent of participants with anxiety developed IHD.

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