Terrorism & healthFear of terrorism increases basal (resting) heart rate, risk of death
A new study of over 17,000 Israelis has found that long-term exposure to the threat of terrorism can elevate people’s resting heart rates and increase their risk of dying. This is the first statistics-based study, and the largest of its kind, which indicates that fear induced by consistent exposure to the threat of terror can lead to negative health consequences and increase the risk of mortality. “We found that fear of terrorism and existential anxiety may disrupt the control processes using acetylcholine, causing a chronic accelerated heart rate. Together with inflammation, these changes are associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke,” one of the researchers said.
A new study of over 17,000 Israelis has found that long-term exposure to the threat of terrorism can elevate people’s resting heart rates and increase their risk of dying. This is the first statistics-based study, and the largest of its kind, which indicates that fear induced by consistent exposure to the threat of terror can lead to negative health consequences and increase the risk of mortality.
It is well-documented that international terror outbreaks involve mass psychological trauma, leading to long-term mental health risks to the exposed population. Previous studies have also shown that in the short term, sudden stressful situations such as earthquakes can increase a person’s heart rate and their risk of having a heart attack.
Whether long-term exposure to the threat of terror can lead to physical health risks in the exposed population, however, has until now remained unknown.
A Hebrew University of Jerusalem release reports that better to understand the health risks associated with the fear of terror, researchers from the HUJ examined the factors affecting basal (resting) heart rates, and studied how these rates changed over the years during annual checkups of healthy Israeli subjects. Israel has been exposed to the repeated stress of multiple wars and terror attacks for over sixty years, with a major impact on the entire society.
The research was conducted by Prof. Hermona Soreq, the Charlotte Slesinger Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at the Hebrew University’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) and a member of Israel’s National I-Core Center of Excellence for Mass Trauma Research; and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Shani Shenhar-Tsarfaty, a recipient of ELSC and the Israel Ministry of Science’s Eshkol Fellowship.
Together with Prof. Yaacov Ritov at the Hebrew University’s Department of Statistics and Center for the Study of Rationality, they studied 17,300 healthy subjects who underwent an annual general medical exam including blood tests, heart rate and stress tests at the Tel Aviv Medical Center each year. The 10,972 men and 6,408 women in the study were apparently healthy employees attending periodic routine health examinations during the years 2002-2013. The data were collected as part of the ‘TAMCIS: Tel Aviv Medical Center Inflammation Survey.’
The questionnaire covered a wide range of occupational, psychological, and physical factors, including body mass index, blood pressure, fitness, smoking, psychological well-being, anxiety, and fear of terror.
