Kim Kardashian appears to blame brain aneurysm on stress. Here’s what doctors say about the connection.

Kim Kardashian revealed that she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm in a teaser for the new season of the family reality show “The Kardashians.” She appears to blame the diagnosis on stress, but doctors say it's not usually a direct cause.

In a video posted Thursday, Kardashian, 45, goes for an MRI and tells her family, “They had a small aneurysm.” She then appears to say that she was told it was “just stress.” Stills from the teaser also show a sometimes emotional Kardashian talking about her bitter divorce from ex-husband Kanye West, who now goes by Ye.

While stress itself does not cause an aneurysm, it can increase blood pressure, which is associated with aneurysm formation and growth, says Dr. Brian Snelling, director of cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgery and director of the stroke program at the Marcus Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South. Florida.

“The real culprits are genetics, high blood pressure, smoking and age-related changes in the arteries,” he told CBS News.

“Stress itself has not been proven to cause aneurysm,” said Dr. Greg Albers, co-founder of medical platform RapidAI and director of the Stanford Stroke Center, but adds that stress can cause blood pressure to rise over time, which can make a person more vulnerable to an aneurysm.

A brain aneurysm is “a bulge or swelling of a blood vessel in the brain.” Mayo Clinic explains.

“You can think of it as a weak point in an artery—think of a garden hose that has one spot where the rubber is balloon-thin instead of thick,” said Dr. Adam Arthur, a neurosurgeon and chief medical officer of Medtronic, a medical device company.

“Over time, the pressure going through that hose created a little bag,” he explained.

Brain aneurysms, which tend to be more common in women, are not uncommon: “About 1 in 50 adults have a brain aneurysm,” Snelling said. But most people never know they have them.

“They are often discovered accidentally in scans done for unrelated reasons. Unless they grow to a large size and rupture, they are usually silent,” he said.

According to the Mayo Clinic, most brain aneurysms are not serious, especially if they are small, since most do not rupture and usually do not cause symptoms or health problems.

“Aneurysms themselves are not dangerous unless they leak or rupture, causing life-threatening bleeding in the brain,” Snelling said.

Hemorrhagic strokes and subarachnoid hemorrhages are two types of brain hemorrhages associated with a ruptured brain aneurysm, according to researchers. Cleveland Clinic.

“The best prevention is blood pressure control, avoidance of smoking and stimulants, screening of at-risk groups and monitoring with imaging,” he added.

Reducing stress may be important in preventing rupture, Arthur added, noting that developing an aneurysm “is something that can happen to anyone, regardless of risk factors.”

Arthur said if a patient has risk factors—for example, two close relatives with aneurysms—testing can be done to identify them.

“If someone is very anxious or has a lot of risk factors, we can do this for them,” he said, adding that he hopes the Kardashian news will help raise awareness.

“I don't want to scare people unnecessarily, but anything we can use to put more emphasis on women's health and how stroke can harm women or cause disability, I think we can make more positive,” he said.