Also, there is a greater consciollsness and knowledge of heart disease and its many different causes among which, according to some cardiologists, is emotional stress. The Veteran's Administration Cardiac Rehabilitation Prograrn educational booklet quotes the American Heart Association as having identified nine factors which increase a person's
chances of having a heart attack. These risk factors are as follows: 1. Cigarette smoking 2. High blood pressu re 3. High levels of cholesterol or other fatty substances in the blood 4. Stress and tension 5. Heredity (a family history of a heart attack in middle age) 6. Diabetes 7. Lack of exercise 8. High intake of animal fat 9. Overweight. lemphasis supplied I The Veteran's Administration's booklet further cautions with regard to stress and tension: Stress and tension may be the leading risk factors in heart disease.
Your personality will determine your reaction to stress. People who are aggressive are more likely to have heart disease than people who are
easy going. Although it is difficult to change your personality, you can be aware of situations which may cause stress and either avoid them or handle
them in a different way. Being aware of what situations are stressful for
you is the first step in eliminating this risk factor. In addition to this greater understanding of the effects of emotional stress by both the medical community and society at large, it should also be remembered that the claimant's bar does seek methods of forging wider basis of liability and larger recoveries and the area of emotional stress seems to be a fertile
there ~,,;: a ~eater con,,;:~,ousId ness and k now e ge 0 f h eart d'1sease and 1ts . many dif'£lerent casues among which ... is " •••
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emotional Stress."
ground for reaching these exact results. Moreover, in today's society, there does appear to be less stigma to admitting that you cannot handle stress. As another lawyer in our firm recently suggested at a workers' compensation seminar, "real men
not only each quiche, they cry and they have stress related heart attacks." The following is a brief review of the manner in which our appellate courts and the Full Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission have
responded to stress related heart attack claims and stress related psychological claims. STRESS RELATED HEART ATTACKS In Arkansas, a workers' compensation claimant bears the burden of
proving that his injury was the result of an accident that arose in the course of his employment, and that it grew out of or resulted from the employment. American Red Cross v. WilSall, 257 Ark. 647,649,519 S.W.2d 60 (1975). Generally, "arising out of the employment" refers to the origin or cause of the accident, while the phrase "in the course of the employment" refers to the time, place and circumstances under which the injury occurred. DwellS v. National Healt1l Lnboratories, IIIC., 8 Ark. App. 92,97,648 S.W.2d 829 (1983). The two most litigated issues in stress related heart attack cases is whether there has truly been an accidental injury and whether the heart attack is causally related to the employment. With regard to whether an accidental injury has occurred, jurisdictions have divided between requiring a showing of an unusual
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