Turn Off to Turn On
Here is something that was once rare: heart attacks killing young people.
What’s going on? Are they just making bad personal choices or is there something about our way of life that has made our culture toxic?
According to an article I read recently chronic, unrelenting stress top reason for heart attacks in young people. Today’s stress is not like in the past when stress was a rare moment where life and death were on the line. The modern kind of stress never truly switches off. Long work hours, poor sleep, constant screen exposure, anxiety, social pressure, and burnout are all affecting the heart in ways people underestimate. Chronic stress keeps the body in a prolonged inflammatory state, raises blood pressure, disrupts hormones, and increases the likelihood of cardiac problems over time. Many young professionals today exercise regularly as they attempt to survive on four hours of sleep, excessive caffeine, and constant emotional exhaustion. Even those who stay alive this way aren’t thriving – they are just surviving. Here is what the American Heart Association [1] has to say about this:
“There are clear associations between psychological health and cardiovascular disease risk. These studies add to a growing body of data we have on how negative psychological health can increase the risk of heart and brain disease. Civieri and colleagues studied data from adults enrolled in the Mass General Brigham Biobank in Boston with no previous heart events. The time required to develop a new cardiovascular risk factors was measured over 10 years of follow-up where they found:
38% of all participants developed a new cardiovascular risk factor, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes during the follow-up; and
Depression and anxiety increased the risk for a major cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, by about 35%. The fact is [2] that: “Heart attacks are growing steadily in younger populations, at a rate of 2% more per year.” This is classic exponential growth in action.
We could say something as stupid as: “Toughen up because when the going gets tough the tough get going”. This has has nothing to do with being tough: it has to do with our biology where we are designed to temporary, acute stress and use hormones to keep us alive through these short bursts that are, if constantly “on”, very damaging to our bodies. It also stops us from thinking deeply because how can you think about the unintended consequences of your choices when you are just trying to get through the day without feeling hopeless and helpless and of no worth? Unrelenting stress does that: it makes drains you physically and emotionally to the degree that young people are now much more pessimistic than older ones and having diseases, like heart attacks, which, if they happen, should only happen to older folks.
So, why does this matter? Young people dying physically like this, or emotionally by being depressed or anxious or having no desire for a stable long term relationship because being alone is just easier are clear red flags that our society is unhealthy. It means we are not wealthy as we believe and as our GDP numbers tell us because
Health is Wealth
And how can we be healthy if we destroy the health of Nature as we spread PFAs around the planet and if pesticides kill so many insects that bird populations are crashing?
In fact I think our heart attacks are simply a reflection of the heart attack Nature is suffering because of us. We cannot expect to make many species extinct and wipe out entire ecosystems – which is a level of death like a heart attack – without repercussions hitting us.
These heart attacks among our youth are yet another red flag saying:
Stop! Pause! Take a break! Think slowly!
..and stop doing but just “be” in this moment instead. I do Tai Chi to turn off my busy left hemisphere dominated brain focused on accomplishing “important and practical tasks”. What this slowing down does is allow me to turn on my more intelligent context based right hemisphere that lives in this messy moment instead of some delusional perfect future that never comes. In effect “I turn off to turn on”.
So what do you recommend to your young friends? Turn off your busyness for some time every day. Turn off the phone. Then turn on by a walk in a forest. Hike. Chat quietly face to face with a friend. Read poetry or better yet write a poem – as I did yesterday:
Your life is a poem.
What words are you writing?
What mysteries are you living?
For your life is not an answer but a question.
References
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