A new study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke found that men and women with severe symptoms of anxiety are more likely to be at risk of stroke, according to a Reuters report.

"The greater your anxiety level, the higher your risks of having a stroke," Dr. Maya J. Lambiase, study co-author of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told Reuters via email. "Assessment and treatment of anxiety has the potential to not only improve overall quality of life, but may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, later in life."

Although stroke is considered as one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., few studies have looked at the psychosocial factors that may lead to a stroke. Most of the studies are focused on depression or psychological stress or distress, but only few have focused on the link between anxiety and stroke.

"What it's really saying is, you're a little more likely to have a stroke," Dr. Philip Muskin, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told Reuters. "I would like to be a little less likely (to have a stroke) in my life."

Muskin was not involved in the study and emphasized that the stroke risk the study identified among overly anxious individuals was not vastly increased, Reuters said.

However, Lambaise and her colleagues who conducted the study found that people with severe anxiety leads to increased cigarette consumption, alcohol abuse, as well as physical inactivity. Lambaise said these are all known to increase a person's risk to suffer from a stroke.

To prove their point, Lambaise and her team investigated the link between anxiety and stroke and analyzed data of 6,019 men and women enrolled in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The survey was conducted in 1971 to 1975 and was followed in the next 16 years.

They found a total of 419 strokes that occurred throughout the period of study, but at the same time generated data that stroke was higher among those who reported sever anxiety symptoms. The overall study found that anxiety was linked to a 14 percent higher risk of stroke than those who are not severely anxious.

"People with high anxiety levels are more likely to smoke and be physically inactive, possibly explaining part of the anxiety-stroke link," Lambiase told Reuters. "Higher stress hormones, blood pressure or sympathetic output may also be factors."