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Researchers at Monash University in Australia found that a seemingly mundane problem—constipation—is an underestimated risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, heart attack, and stroke.
What Did the Scientists Discover?
Constipation is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders, affecting about 14 percent of the global population. Previous studies have linked bowel movement patterns with overall health.
Recently, Australian researchers analyzed health data from more than 400,000 people in the UK Biobank. They found that people with constipation were two to three times more likely to develop serious heart conditions than people who did not experience constipation or did so infrequently.
High blood pressure in people who struggle with constipation appears to make the risk worse. Among study participants who had both hypertension and constipation, the likelihood of having a heart attack was 34 percent higher.
“Traditional risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking, have long been recognized as primary causes of heart disease. However, these factors do not fully explain the occurrence of serious cardiac events,” noted Professor Francine Marques, the lead author of the study.
She and her colleagues looked into constipation as an additional risk factor and found alarming results, as reported by ScienceAlert.
Leticia Camargo Tavares, a computational biologist and genomic medicine specialist and co-author of the study, said the team discovered significant genetic correlations between constipation and various forms of adverse cardiovascular events.
Future Research Ahead
In recent years, gut health has become a key aspect of personalized medicine and is increasingly linked to both heart and brain health.
Researchers at Monash University are calling for further studies to understand how chronic constipation may affect the cardiovascular system over the long term.
“These results suggest that a significant portion of the population may be at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases due to gut health issues,” summarized Professor Marques.
The findings of the study were published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology.
The Fatal Problem of Elvis
Perhaps the most famous example of the potentially dangerous consequences of chronic constipation is Elvis Presley. The singer, who suffered from chronic constipation, died in 1977 at the age of 42 from a heart attack.
While Elvis’s death remains complicated, and drug use likely contributed to his health problems, he was plagued by persistent constipation, likely caused by a poor diet and heavy use of painkillers.
Some experts, including Elvis’s personal physician, suggested that his battle with constipation led to dangerously elevated blood pressure and heart rate.
The correlation between constipation and heart ailments suggests a possible genetic component, according to medical professionals. Elvis’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, died at 54 from cardiac arrest; some reports said she had a blockage in her small intestine, a partial or complete obstruction.
