[CaspersGh0sts]

“Why do researchers waste so much time and money confirming what everyone already knows or disproving what everyone knows to be false?”

I wouldn’t say that I know this is true. I’d suspect it. But have you removed the other variables?

Stressed people—they smoke more, right? They tend to eat more (and generally more junk) due to higher circulating levels of cortisol, right?

But if you control for those variables, do stressed individuals actually accumulate more arterial plaque in their arteries? Are they more likely to have a thrombus break loose and cause a myocardial infarction? I’d guess so, but I couldn’t say for certain.

You’d think that you’ve have more inflammatory mediators activated and thus more plaque accumulation. I don’t think it’s been proven, yet, though. Nor without a closer look could I tell if this study confirms it.

So let’s say you have this study that confirms that higher levels of stress cause the accumulation of plaque in the arteries. Now you’d be a bit more apt to begin exploring those inflammatory mediatiors activated by stress and their effects on the circulatory system. Right?

Granted, a lot of this is already going on. I just don’t think this is as clear as it would appear.

[TheThinker]

I feel that stress likely inhibits all sorts of bodily processes needed to maintain a healthy, well-functioning body.

Perhaps I'm too hard on the researchers. You know what they say about critics...

[TheThinker]

So let’s say you have this study that confirms that higher levels of stress cause the accumulation of plaque in the arteries. Now you’d be a bit more apt to begin exploring those inflammatory mediatiors activated by stress and their effects on the circulatory system. Right?

I'd say that's right. The other variables like smoking and eating badly probably compound the negative effect of stress on plaque accumulation. I'm just theorizing, although it might help explain why many people who don't abuse their bodies also too often succumb to heart attacks.