Word: heart
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...researchers theorize that depression might have some direct physiological impact on the heart - like causing it to work harder in the face of stress. The study also found that the more depressed women were, the more likely they were to smoke cigarettes or have high blood pressure and diabetes - not exactly heart-healthy conditions. Or it may be that the antidepressants prescribed to treat those with mood problems were associated with heart ailments; in the study, sudden cardiac death was linked more strongly with antidepressant use than with women's symptoms of depression...
...sure exactly how depression hurts the heart, and one plausible explanation is that the train runs in the opposite direction - a damaged heart and its consequent stress on the body might activate, somehow, genes or other physiological changes that contribute to depression...
...another new paper, also published in the J.A.C.C., lends credence to the idea that it is our moods that work on our hearts and not the other way around. In this paper, researchers from University College London reviewed the findings of 39 previously published articles and found that men who are angry and hostile are significantly more likely to have a cardiac event than those who aren't. That may sound unsurprising - we all know that anger can stress your heart. But it's important to note the difference between aggression and just being aggressive. Previous studies (here...
...authors of the second paper offer the standard theories about how an angry emotion translates to a physical heart attack: angry people have a harder time sleeping; they take prescribed drugs less often; they eat worse, exercise less, smoke more and are fatter. These things add up: compared with the good-humored, those who were angry and hostile - but had no signs of heart problems at the outset - ended up with a 19% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, according to the University College London paper...
...studies reify gender stereotypes: women get their hearts broken through sadness; men "break" their hearts (via heart attack) through anger. But both studies suggest that men and women have a common interest in understanding that some causes of cardiac disease - poor diet or lack of exercise or bad sleep habits - may have a precipitating cause themselves. Whether male or female, letting yourself get overwhelmed by emotion can damage not only your mind but also that crucial organ, the heart...