Kim Kardashian just revealed that she’s been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, and seemingly attributed it to stress. But before you start worrying about, well, worrying, we asked our chief medical officer, Sohaib Imtiaz, MD, if there’s any real link between stress and aneurysms.
Q: I heard Kim K. has a brain aneurysm from stress—can that really happen?
Imtiaz: The short answer is no, stress isn’t considered a direct cause of brain aneurysms.
Aneurysms form when a weak spot develops in a blood vessel wall, often due to things like high blood pressure, smoking, or genetics.
But here’s where stress comes into play: Chronic psychological stress can raise blood pressure over time, and that is a major risk factor for aneurysm formation and rupture.
Recent studies even show that people with aneurysms often report higher levels of long-term stress; and some research has found elevated hair cortisol, a biological marker of chronic stress, in patients whose aneurysms ruptured.
So while stress doesn’t create aneurysms out of nowhere, it might make existing ones more likely to rupture.
An aneurysm is a bulge in an artery in the brain. Unruptured brain aneurysms, like Kardashian’s, aren’t uncommon: An estimated 6.8 million people in the U.S. have one, or about one in 50.
Many people with unruptured aneurysms don’t know they have them, since they’re usually small and cause no symptoms.
However, in rare cases, if an aneurysm becomes larger, it can lead to symptoms such as:
- Blurred or double vision
- A drooping eyelid
- A dilated pupil
- Pain above and behind one eye
- Weakness and/or numbness
If an aneurysm ruptures, it becomes a medical emergency. Blood leaking around the brain can lead to:
- A sudden and severe headache, often described as “the worst headache of my life”
- Nausea or vomiting
- Blurred or double vision
- Seizure
- Loss of consciousness
Doctors typically monitor small, unruptured aneurysms but may recommend surgery or other interventions if rupture risk increases.
