Supporting Caregivers for Heart Health

Original Articles: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190911091400.htm
https://onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-282X(19)30341-1/fulltext

Caregiver Stress and Heart Health

When spouses become caregivers for their partners with heart problems, they often develop stress. This stress, ironically, might raise the risk of heart problems for the caregivers themselves. The emotions, actions, and physical strain experienced by these caregivers can add to their risk of heart disease. Even though we know about these connections, there aren’t many ways that have been proven to help reduce the stress caregivers feel.

Strain on Relationships and Heart Health

Taking care of someone with heart disease can put extra pressure on the relationship between the caregiver and the patient. This added stress can make the caregiver feel even more distressed. We already know that having a bad relationship can be bad for your heart and can affect behaviors that influence heart health. So, it’s important to find ways to improve the relationship between caregivers and patients to help reduce the stress for both and improve their heart health.

Improving Heart Health Together

In this review, the authors suggest that it might be helpful to focus on improving the relationship between caregivers and patients as part of programs that help prevent heart problems. They think that by doing this, it could lower the stress for caregivers and also improve the heart health of both the patient and the caregiver. But to know for sure, we need to study how programs that involve both the patient and the caregiver affect their heart health and well-being.