Stressed to kill

Doctors flashed a warning about the potentially fatal effects of the condition - particularly on the young - as high-flying York sales executive Mark McBrearty told how he suffered two heart attacks in one day.

Also today, York barmaid Laura Stewart revealed how she had been diagnosed with high blood pressure - at the age of only 22.

Doctors are becoming increasingly worried about the toll the pace of modern-day life is taking.

The International Stress Management Association (ISMA) believes well over 20,000 people in York could be suffering from work-related stress.

It says one-in-five of York's 138,563 adult population is in danger from the condition. Accounting for those out of work, retired and those who are overseas students, the ISMA believes just over 100,000 are at risk.

Dr David Geddes, medical director of Selby and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), said: "Stress is affecting more young people than ever before.

"Stress can cause illnesses such as heart disease, strokes, stomach ulcers, asthma and eczema. It can increase your risk of heart disease because it makes you hold more cholesterol down and gets your adrenalin flowing which can increase your blood pressure.

"The way you manage stress could be smoking more or drinking more which could have an adverse effect on your health. We have a busier lifestyle, less time to sit down and eat meals together and less time to be able to relax."

Mr McBrearty, 36, of Fangfoss, could not believe it when doctors at York Hospital told him he had fallen prey to a condition usually associated with the elderly.

"I got up in the morning and I didn't feel too good at all, I was shaking and my chest felt as though it was trapped in a vice," he said.

"I rang my partner, Jo, to tell her I felt ill, then went upstairs to get a shower.

"The next thing I knew I was curled up in a ball at the top of the stairs, I'd been out for 15 minutes and I was in absolute agony."

Mark was rushed to York Hospital, where he suffered a second heart attack, and was transferred to St James's Hospital in Leeds.

He said: "The worst moment was the night in Leeds when I woke up feeling like I was drowning.

"I could hear a gargling sound and within seconds there were about seven doctors and nurses around me, I thought: 'This is it, I'm going.' I really thought I was a goner, but it just wasn't meant to be.

"Support is very important after a heart attack and no matter what you are suffering, the team at York Hospital will help you. The staff in the Coronary Care Unit were excellent."

Doctors told Mark he had a blocked artery and had suffered two heart attacks.

Recovering at home, he believes a relationship break-up combined with work pressures had pushed him to the brink, without him realising.

"A lot of people can handle a high pressure lifestyle, but I don't think I could cope with it," he said. "I think some people looking in on my life might say that I was a heart attack waiting to happen, but I didn't think I was, I thought I was coping." The trauma of seeing his life hanging in the balance changed Mark's outlook on life, and back at home, he gave up the job he loved and looked for something less stressful.

Until the heart attacks, Mark worked as a car sales executive, continuously striving to meet targets.

"It was a great job, but I was always worrying because if you didn't meet your targets you wouldn't make any proper money at the end of the month," he said. "I was quite inexperienced and I didn't know how to present myself and make the big bucks."

Mark's job also involved taking drivers on test drives, which he also found quite stressful.

He flew to Thailand eight weeks after the heart attacks and later proposed to his partner, Jo. Another victim of stress was Laura Stewart, 22, who was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure following a fall.

She is a barmaid at the Red Lion in Merchantgate, York.

"I was shocked when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. There are heart problems in my family, so I was quite worried to hear the news. I used to be a very stressed person, but I realised that I had to calm down.

"I would say that now my life is stressful, but not too stressful, although I'm on my feet all the time and on the go all the time. I don't think enough people realise just how damaging stress can be, young people especially. They must realise that they have to learn how to relax."

What the experts say about stress

PAULINE Gacal, head of the school of professional health at the College of York St John, said there was a lot of pressure on young people.

"Fifty years ago our expectations of young people were perhaps not as high, we put a lot of them under stress in terms of examination achievements, going to university and finding a job, and the whole issue of unemployment is different to what it was then.

"Young people also respond to pressure from the media to what they should have in terms of designer gear and to peer group pressure in what they should achieve. Fifty years ago, people were less bothered about it."

Rosemary Anderson, spokeswoman from the International Stress Management Association, said young people felt under increasing pressure to achieve academically.

"Academic qualifications weren't always the be all and end all. Far fewer people used to go to university, they could use their practical skills instead.

"Now far more people are expected to go and the drop out rates is very high. If you're set up for something that isn't your fort right from the start and you can't make it, what does that do to your self confidence?

"People have far less support, divorces are a lot more prevalent, and parents themselves are stressed because they can't offer the support to their kids."

A spokeswoman from the British Heart Foundation said stress was very difficult to monitor.

She said: "Stress can affect the heart by releasing hormones, fats and sugars which can increase blood pressure which is a major risk factor for heart disease.

"Fats and sugars can also increase clotting in the arteries.

"If you are someone who is at risk of heart disease, walking round with an undetected heart condition then stress linked with other risk factors could increase your risk of a heart attack."

Updated: 10:26 Wednesday, March 09, 2005