Depression and heart disease

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By Caralee Adams

We’ve all felt down or blue at one time or another. But for those suffering from clinical depression, the feelings are pushed to the extreme and the results can be debilitating to your life as well as your heart health. Without treatment, symptoms can interfere with work, sleep, daily living, and your long-term health.

What Is Depression?
Depression is a mental illness that negatively affects how you feel, think, and act. Your emotions interfere with everyday life—and the feeling lasts. Symptoms of depression can be mild, moderate, or severe.

How Does Depression Affect the Heart?
Depression is a risk factor for heart disease, alongside traditional risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, and high cholesterol. Depression can be both a cause and an effect of heart disease. Symptoms of depression can make it difficult to stick to a treatment regiment for heart disease, such as recommendations for medication and exercise. Stress hormones can also be higher in people with depression due to psychological distress, which negatively affects the heart, especially over time. Depression can also be caused by heart disease, particularly when an individual experiences major life changes or ongoing pain as a result of his/her heart condition.