Stress Reaction
The human body reacts to stress with an alarm reaction, during which increased adrenaline and other stress hormones are released, which put the body in alarm and action readiness. The centrally triggered activation leads to an imbalance in the regulation of the unconscious vegetative controlled processes in the body. This disturbed regulation can lead to functional organ disorders and make the body ill. If the triggering event can be controlled, i.e. if the person affected expects to be able to cope with the problem, the stress reaction can be brought under control quickly. If the affected person remains exposed to events or circumstances that cause stress for too long, the body and psyche can no longer resist, in extreme cases the psyche and body collapse.
Stress reaction at the heart
During the stress reaction adrenalin and other stress hormones are released. Adrenaline activates the sympathetic nervous system of the heart and thus increases the heart rate and contractility. In addition, an increased adrenaline level in the blood accelerates the electrical stimulus transmission of the heart and lowers the excitation threshold to trigger a new action potential, which then initiates the next heart action.
The lower excitation threshold makes the occurrence of extrasystoles more probable, since possible potential fluctuations at the end of a cardiac action can now more easily exceed the necessary threshold potential. Extrasystoles are heart actions that do not follow the normal heart rhythm but are perceived as an extra heartbeat of the heart. In principle, extrasystoles are harmless, as they also occur in healthy patients and are usually not even noticed.
Extrasystoles are favored by a stress reaction and become noticeable as a heart stumble. Not everyone is affected by stress, which can be explained by the different methods used by different people to perceive and cope with stress. People who are less able to cope with stress and people who are more stressed experience a stress-induced heart stutter more often than people who are less affected by stress. In addition to heart flutter, heart palpitations can also be caused by stress.
