Emotions and the Health of Our Hearts

by Kirk Laman, D.O.

“I’m afraid my heart is broken,” Nancy said.  Nancy, a middle-aged woman, sat perched on an examining table in my cardiology office.  She was of moderate weight, didn’t smoke cigarettes, but had a family history of heart disease.  She had also recently been diagnosed with diabetes.  “What do you mean?” I’d asked, wanting to know if she meant physically broken with a heart ailment or psychologically damaged.

“I feel something is seriously wrong with my heart physically, but I know that I’m also in great pain emotionally.”  Nancy had suffered through a recent divorce and was now seeing a cardiologist for chest pain.  Listening to her story it was clear that she did indeed have an emotionally broken heart.  Her marriage of over twenty years had dissolved quite unexpectedly, and she was taking care of her mother who was chronically ill.  Over the previous few-months sadness had swept over her like a heavy, blinding fog. An oppressive constricting pressure sensation was gripping her chest whenever she walked her Golden Retriever.

Over the next few weeks we performed a stress test, which proved to be abnormal.  She ended up having a heart catheterization, a special test where plastic tubes are passed up inside the heart arteries to diagnose cholesterol blockages of the heart.  Nancy did indeed have a blocked heart artery.  She also underwent a balloon angioplasty, and a metal stent was inserted to keep the artery open.

Can heart disease be created from sadness and psychological pain?  Although some people might doubt that what happens to us emotionally can create actual physical heart disease, recent medical research has proven otherwise.  Certain emotions such as sadness, anger, hostility, anxiety, loneliness and depression have been confirmed to cause heart-related illness.

In a recent British Medical Journal report, it was shown that chronic work-related stress actually created physical heart disease.  Researchers studied over 5000 men and women who were in jobs that they felt offered no hope for advancement.  They often performed repetitive boring activities and suffered from chronic stress.  The people in this type of position were 2-3 times more likely to suffer heart attacks when compared to people who felt their jobs to be fulfilling.

In another study performed at the Mayo Clinic, it was documented that men and women who are stricken with severe emotional duress - such as losing their job, finding out that a close loved one had died, or had their life threatened - can die suddenly just from the emotional trauma.  Although we have all heard of people “dropping dead” after hearing shocking news, it has now been proven that such “sudden death” being caused by emotional upset is real.  It is possible to die because of a “broken heart.”

Luckily, we don’t have to become a medical statistic.  Hearts that are hurt or broken can also to be mended.  Simple, practical techniques are available to help people reduce their stress level.  Counseling in particular has been shown to be effective for treating anxiety and depression.  Yoga has also been shown to help participants deal constructively with life’s challenges, and many other effective modalities can be found.  Our painful emotions don’t have to be our undoing.  Hope does exist for our “broken hearts.”  Joy and love are wonderful healing tools, as well as good preventative medicine. 

Kirk Laman, D.O. is a practicing cardiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University.  His book, How to Heal Your Broken Heart is now available for purchase.  He offers a free monthly newsletter on his website called Mending Hearts.  His website address is www.drlaman.com