Everyone is so busy, so many people are anxious and depressed that they become the “anxious”, “depressed” and “bored” of the real world, giving you a reason to relax. Two new studies to be published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology confirm that anxiety is an independent risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD), and researchers say that doctors who often ignore their patients’ emotions should take these findings very seriously. Annelieke M Roest of Tilburg University in the Netherlands and colleagues summarized data from the United States, Europe, Asia and other countries to conduct a Meta-analysis of the correlation between anxiety and the incidence of CHD in those who were previously healthy, and after a mean follow-up of 11.2 years of multivariate adjustment found that anxious people had a 25% higher risk of developing CHD than the general population, and the odds of dying from heart disease The odds of dying from heart disease approached as high as 50 percent. Another study done by Imre Janszky et al. at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, which followed 50,000 Swedish men who took a military recruitment physical examination for an average of 37 years, found that depression did not predict the risk of coronary heart disease, but that those diagnosed with anxiety disorders had nearly twice the risk of developing coronary heart disease or acute myocardial infarction as those without anxiety disorders. Joel E Dimsdale, University of California, commented that cardiologists have certainly recognized the transient effects of anxiety on physiological functions such as blood pressure, palpitations, and angina, and these new studies now suggest that asking patients if they suffered from anxiety disorders earlier in life is essential for the diagnosis, evaluation, and prevention of heart disease. Although some research is needed to confirm that relieving symptoms of anxiety disorders has the potential to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, Joel E Dimsdale believes that “until proven otherwise, wise physicians should assume that treating anxiety disorders has benefits beyond relieving anxiety symptoms and improving patients’ social functioning.” Joel E Dimsdale comments that new risk factors for coronary artery disease should be carefully evaluated. Anxiety disorders, as common as hypertension, primarily affect young adults, with a lifetime prevalence of about 28%. Anxiety combined with depression has an even greater impact on quality of life. However, physicians are often shy about assessing emotional symptoms, and it is curious that physicians puncture catheters, remove damaged tissue, and perform rectal examinations, but are often uncomfortable asking patients about their mood. Clinicians should be aware that if they encounter patients with anxiety disorders, these patients may develop heart disease in the future, even in those who were previously healthy. But it is also important to be aware of this danger for those patients who already have heart disease, because anxiety correlates with the progression of heart disease.