February is American Heart Month and Michigan State Police are expanding a pilot program to help troopers assess their heart health.
The program was originally planned for 500 participants, but after more than 700, or one third of all enforcement members signed on, MSP decided to include everyone within the agency.
Lieutenant Ashley Miller with MSP’s 7th district said the most stressful part of a trooper’s job is the unknown.
“Every day there is a time where you’re going through a domestic or a car crash, or you’re dealing with a horrific crime against a child, and sometimes you get all of that in one day,” said Miller.
All those different stresses can be hard to deal with, especially when things change on a dime.
“Sometimes it’s a rush of stress. If they respond to a crash and initially, they’re stressed because they think it may be a serious injury crash, but it turns out, that there’s no injuries,” said Miller.
Miller said the roller coaster of emotions troopers feel on an everyday basis really can take a toll.
“Recent research does show that police officers are at a higher risk of heart attack and the average age for a heart attack for police officers is 46 years old, compared to 65 for the general public,” said Miller.
The chief medical officer for Munson Healthcare’s South Region, Dr. Brian McComb said the number is startling but makes sense from a medical standpoint.
McComb said the role of a police officer is often a high stress situation, and that stress can impact your heart health.
“There’s physical factors that stress can create for you, like increasing blood pressure and just releasing a lot of stress hormones like cortisol, which can increase the levels of blood pressure,” said McComb.
He said other factors many in law enforcement deal with, like trouble sleeping, anxiety, diet, and depression can also contribute to higher blood pressure, and that puts more strain on your heart.
“Your heart has to basically work harder to keep up with your body. And I think when it does that, it’s like any muscle it can expand and get bigger, and then it gets too big to be a functional pump anymore. And that creates the level of heart disease,” said McComb.
McComb said he applauds MSP for offering the screenings.
He said heart related problems are not all dependent on age but other factors like lifestyle choices and family history.
“I think a lot of people assume that that’s only got to happen to people that are in the older population. I think that’s fair, and I think the majority of people will be older. But it doesn’t necessarily hold true for everyone. 46 is very young,” said McComb.