Happiness makes your heart happy – how are heart health and mental well-being connected?
Text: Anni Karjala / Illustration: Erik Lanza
Our heart and mind are in close connection via the autonomous nervous system. Detrimental effects of psychological factors on heart health are often talked about, but the delightful news is that there is also a heart health-promoting connection.
Happy mind, healthy heart?
Although it is a rather new field of research, a body of evidence suggests that a positive psychological mindset may really benefit your heart health.
A study found that being optimistic may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as 35% (1), and another reported a 29% reduction in the risk of dying due to heart disease in individuals who reported high psychological well-being (2).
How it works: Positivity pathways
The mind-heart connection has two main mechanisms, directly via biological pathways and indirectly through impacting our behavior.
The biological pathways of the heart-mind connection are not yet completely understood. One suggested mechanism is an increase in the “good cholesterol” (high-density lipoprotein) levels seen with higher levels of psychological well-being (3,4). Another possible mechanism is reduction in inflammation – a harmful process well-recognized in the development of atherosclerosis, a process known to be at the heart of heart disease (5,6).
On the other hand, happiness and psychological well-being impact our health behavior. It is known that happy individuals tend to sleep better, exercise more, eat better, and smoke less – all protective behaviors for the heart (7).
Positive psychological factors may also buffer the harmful mechanisms of negative emotions and stress, both with balancing the harmful biological stress responses and with better resilience and capacity to regulate negative emotions (8,9).
Just be positive, then?
Being positive or optimistic are often considered as traits, but evidence suggests that with some training, it’s possible to tweak one’s mindset towards these features. Research shows that characteristics like optimism can be increased with training, and this in turn could result in better heart health (11).
As you might guess, watching a few cat videos won’t do the trick. Our brain is in this sense much like a muscle and needs to be trained systematically. Everyone is different, and there ought to be a variety of ways to improve psychological well-being. As with any behavior change, the first step is to find the ones that suit you the best – no tool will benefit you if you do not use it.
An area with rather robust evidence is mindfulness training. It is known to reduce stress, increase compassion and improve psychological well-being – and might be a good place to start when seeking better health for the mind – and heart (10).
Our minds are closely connected to our hearts. Taking good care of ourselves mentally will not only make us happier but has the double benefit also enhancing our physical health, especially our heart.
References:
Rozanski A, Bavishi C, Kubzansky LD, Cohen R. Association of optimism with cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA Netw Open. 2019; 2:e1912200. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.12200
Boehm JK, Soo J, Chen Y, Zevon ES, Hernandez R, Lloyd-Jones D, Kubzansky LD. Psychological well-being’s link with cardiovascular health in older adults.Am J Prev Med. 2017; 53:791–798. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.06.028
Soo J, Kubzansky LD, Chen Y, Zevon ES, Boehm JK. Psychological well-being and restorative biological processes: HDL-C in older English adults.Soc Sci Med. 2018; 209:59–66. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.05.025
Appleton A, Kubzansky LD. Emotional regulation and cardiovascular disease risk.Gross JJ, ed. In: Handbook of Emotion Regulation. The Guildford Press2014596–612
Ironson G, Banerjee N, Fitch C, Krause N. Positive emotional well-being, health behaviors, and inflammation measured by C-reactive protein.Soc Sci Med. 2018; 197:235–243. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.06.020
Panagi L, Poole L, Hackett RA, Steptoe A. Happiness and inflammatory responses to acute stress in people with type 2 diabetes.Ann Behav Med. 2019; 53:309–320. doi: 10.1093/abm/kay039
Steptoe A. Happiness and health.Annu Rev Public Health. 2019; 40:339–359. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-044150
Kok BE, Coffey KA, Cohn MA, Catalino LI, Vacharkulksemsuk T, Algoe SB, Brantley M, Fredrickson BL. How positive emotions build physical health: perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone.Psychol Sci. 2013; 24:1123–1132. doi: 10.1177/0956797612470827
Steptoe A, Wardle J, Marmot M. Positive affect and health-related neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and inflammatory processes.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005; 102:6508–6512. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0409174102
Baer RA, Lykins ELB, Peters JR. Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators.J Posit Psychol. 2012; 7:230–238
Mohammadi N, Aghayousefi A, Nikrahan GR, et al. The Impact of an Optimism Training Intervention on Biological Measures Associated With Cardiovascular Health: Data From a Randomized Controlled Trial.Psychosom Med. 2020;82(7):634-640. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000834
