How Emotions Can Affect the Heart
- Oct 30, 2018
In “Heart: A History,” Dr. Sandeep Jauhar argues that doctors need to devote more attention to how factors like unhappy relationships and work stress influence heart disease.
Excerpt Oct 30, 2018 NY Times
“Nationwide, heart disease is still the leading killer of adults. But cardiovascular medicine has grown by leaps and bounds: Mortality after a heart attack has dropped tenfold since the late 1950s. Yet the role that emotional health plays in the development of the disease remains largely underappreciated, Dr. Jauhar says. He traces this to the landmark Framingham Heart Study, started in 1948, which followed thousands of Americans and identified important cardiovascular risk factors like cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking. The Framingham investigators initially considered looking at psychosocial determinants of heart disease as well, but ultimately decided to focus on things that were more easily measured.
“What came out of it were the risk factors that we now know and treat,” Dr. Jauhar said. “What was eliminated were things like emotional dysfunction and marital health.”
That, he says, was a mistake. In the decades since then, other studies have shown that people who feel socially isolated or chronically stressed by work or relationships are more prone to heart attacks and strokes. Studies on Japanese immigrants to America found that their heart disease risk multiplies. But those who retain their traditional Japanese culture and strong social bonds are protected: Their heart disease rates do not rise. Dr. Jauhar argues that health authorities should list emotional stress as a key modifiable risk factor for heart disease. But it is much easier to focus on cholesterol than emotional and social disruption.”