How emotions can affect the heart

A century ago, the scientist Karl Pearson was studying cemetery headstones when he noticed something peculiar: Husbands and wives often died within a year of one another.

- Anahad O'Connor

Though not widely appreciated at the time, studies now show that stress and despair can significantly influence health, especially that of the heart. One of the most striking examples is a condition known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or broken-heart syndrome, in which the death of a spouse, financial worries or some other emotional event severely weakens the heart, causing symptoms that mimic a heart attack. This emotional burden transforms the heart into a shape that resembles a traditional Japanese pot called a “takotsubo,” which has a narrow neck and a wide bottom.

The link between emotional health and heart health is the subject of a new book, Heart: A History, by Dr Sandeep Jauhar. Jauhar, a cardiologist, traces the history of cardiovascular medicine and explores its remarkable technological advances, from open-heart surgery to the artificial heart. But while these cardiac innovations have been transformative, Jauhar argues that the field of cardiology needs to devote more attention to the emotional factors that can influence heart disease, like unhappy relationships, poverty, income inequality and work stress.

“I think the iterative technological advances will continue,” he said. “But the big frontier is going to be in marshalling more resources to address the intersection of the emotional heart and the biological heart.”

Jauhar’s interest in this subject stems from his family’s malignant history with heart disease, which killed several of his relatives. As a young boy, he heard stories about his paternal grandfather, who died suddenly at the age of 57 when a frightening encounter with a black cobra in India caused him to have a heart attack. He became fascinated with the heart but also terrified of it. “I had this fear of the heart as the executioner of men in the prime of their lives,” he said.