To our surprise there has reportedly been a three-fold increase in heart attacks after Katrina, still four years later?

Dr. Anand Irimpen is an Interventional Cardiologist at the Tulane University Heart and Vascular Institute and he looked at all the heart attack cases at Tulane Hospital two-years after it reopened post Katrina and four years after.

He expected to see problems start to decrease, but he reportedly found the population was not getting better and in some ways was getting worse.

"I think a lot of it may be attributable to stress because the way some people cope with stress is they indulge in unhealthy habits," Dr. Anand Irimpen said.

He believes increased unemployment, smoking, alcohol use, drug use and not getting the prescriptions and regular medical treatments people need are contributing.

He says he is seeing higher cholesterol in the New Orleans area, possibly from all the fast food and packaged processed foods people are eating because they have been too busy rebuilding lives to shop for and prepare whole natural foods.

People are not putting a priority on exercise. And he says don't underestimate the damaging power of stress anxiety depression and other more serious brain function disorders. And since we are social beings lack of support appears to be playing a role.

"There were more single and or divorced individuals who had heart attacks four years post Katrina compared to two years post Katrina," Irimpen says.

And there is also a suspected link with the stress of having to live in tight quarters with other people or families

It was also found that people even at two years and four years who are living in temporary housing were more prone to the heart attacks and also local residents were more prone to heart attacks compared to visitors.

So here's the take home message to this one diet and exercise are extremely important two if you have any type of anxiety stress or other type of mental illness seek professional help and three if you or a loved one is addicted to a legal or illegal type of drug or substance seek professional help for that addiction.

Other studies on natural disasters around the world... Did not find such a dramatic increase in heart attacks during the years following the event.

The Tulane study was presented at the American College of Cardiology Convention in town.

- Alisa Thomas KSLA-TV