Heart of Joy

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By Doug Donaldson
Photo by Emily Wilson

A family history of heart disease keeps Joy Behar, comedienne and commentator on The View, focused on maintaining her health and keeping a happy heart.

Most people know that Joy Behar—the redheaded co-host of television’s The View—isn’t a doctor. But she got to play a doctor in the middle of Macy’s in New York City earlier this year.
           
Participating in the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign, Behar guided women to a kiosk set up in the store and helped them navigate a series of questions about heart health. Then, with the assistance of a computer program (and a real doctor standing nearby), she calculated the women’s risk of heart disease.
           
Behar delighted in helping determine the women’s risk factors. “I guess I’m just nosy,” Behar told Heart-Healthy Living™ magazine in an exclusive interview. “I am interested in a lot of people. Everyone has a story. I’m also a problem solver and if there’s a way to work out a problem, I’m there. This campaign has concrete tools to work with. I like that.”
           
Her work with the American Heart Association dovetails with her most recent book, When You Need a Lift But Don’t Want to Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin. The book is a compilation of mood-boosting stories from Behar and other celebrities, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Diane Sawyer, and Jackie Chan.
           
Such chuckles may be exactly what the doctor ordered as depression is linked to the inflammatory factors that contribute to heart disease. Men with depressive moods were about 50 percent more likely to develop heart disease within five years, according to a study published in Circulation: The Journal of the American Heart Association.

Behar also has a more personal reason for sharing information about heart health and depression. She, too, suffered from extreme depression at one point in her life.