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Doctors who treat heart patients know that depression is a common occurrence in people following cardiac events. Now the medical profession is beginning to understand the very real physical impact of stress, depression and other mental illnesses on the heart – well before a heart attack takes place.
Mental health and athletic performance
Science has long understood that emotions can affect our bodies – we’ve seen it in athletic competition for years. Coaches in every sport emphasize the importance of mindset in achieving optimum performance. When physical and mental performance align, the results can be breathtaking.
The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation has written about the mind-heart-body connection, with an emphasis on runners: “The runner’s state of mind significantly impacts physical performance and heart health.”
When the mental game isn’t where it needs to be, even prominent athletes say there’s an impact on performance.
Earlier this decade, two champion athletes with enormous name recognition withdrew from competition because of mental health concerns. In 2021 tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open after declining to meet with media or conduct a press conference following a victory; later that year she opted not to participate in Wimbledon. Weeks afterward, Simone Biles – considered by many to be the greatest gymnast of all time – withdrew from several events in the Tokyo Olympics, citing serious mental health issues that caused her to fear for her safety as she performed.
Osaka, Biles and numerous other athletes have been both criticized and applauded for putting their mental health first. Robert Schinke, president of the International Society of Sport Psychology, pointed out that mental health and athletes is not a new topic of discussion.
“I think it’s always been a prevalent discussion among athletes,” Schinke told USA Today in 2021. “I don’t think it’s been all that prevalent a discussion among the people surrounding the athletes, and part of the reason why is because their focus has been on performance.”
Thanks to the bravery of high-profile athletes like Biles and Osaka, the sports world continues to broaden the dialogue about how mental health can affect athletes and their ability to perform physically at the highest levels of difficulty.
Openness about one’s mental health is increasingly seen as strength rather than weakness, even in the world of elite athletes. Simone Biles’s gold medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics are a testament not only to her GOAT status, but to the power of honesty, self-knowledge, and putting in the work to optimize not only her physical performance but also her mental health.
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Mental health and heart health
Mental health doesn’t just affect athletic performance.
Many people who have had a heart attack or other cardiovascular event experience depression in the aftermath. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD “can be brought on after an acute heart disease event from factors including pain, fear of death or disability, and financial problems associated with the event.”
But health professionals and the public are beginning to understand the very real impact of stress, depression and other mental illnesses on the heart well before a cardiac event.
“Feeling down” and other manifestations of mental illness can themselves damage the cardiovascular system. In fact, 33 percent of cardiovascular outcomes are related to mental health. In other words, people who suffer from untreated mental health concerns – including anger, depression, anxiety, and other conditions – may be at risk for cardiovascular disease. Additionally, depression rates are three times higher in patients with heart disease.
Specific populations have been found to be more susceptible: veterans, who may suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD; women with PTSD or depression; couples in which one partner has PTSD; and racial and ethnic minorities.
Twenty years ago the Interheart study looked at risk factors and heart disease in 24,767 patients from 52 countries. The New York Times reported the study “found that patients who experienced a high level of psychological stress during the year before they entered the study were more than twice as likely to suffer a heart attack during an average follow-up of five years, even when traditional risk factors were taken into account. The study . . . showed that psychological stress is an independent risk factor for heart attacks, similar in heart-damaging effects to the more commonly measured cardiovascular risks.”
The good news
The old stigma attached to mental illness continues to dissolve. With more people willing to come forward with stories of struggle and success, we’re learning that stigma is unwarranted.
More and more options are available for getting help with chronic stress, anxiety, depression and other issues. The internet abounds with free and low-cost apps that can help you calm and destress. Even a few moments of deep breathing in the course of a day can slow the heart rate and lower blood pressure.
Learning to cultivate healthy habits of mind will help protect your heart. For some people, healthy habits alone will not be enough. Seeking treatment from a professional is often necessary.
If the likes of Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles can talk about mental illness, it hopefully encourages others to do so too. Turns out that mental health and heart health depend on each other. That’s why it’s so important to take a proactive strategy to manage your mental health and well-being as part of a heart-healthy lifestyle.
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Join us for the Riebe Run on Saturday, September 21 at French Regional Park in Plymouth, MN.
This family-friendly 5k walk/run raises awareness for heart disease in honor of Greg Riebe, who passed away in 2015 from arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. With each step, participants will fuel cutting-edge heart disease research–bringing us closer to changing the trajectory of heart disease for current and future generations. Your participation and donation supports heart rhythm research at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. Register to run
