"Heartbroken" and "heart-warming" have long been considered simple expressions with no significant medical meaning. However, research from the National Heart Foundation of Australia has clearly shown that depression, social isolation, and lack of quality social support are three significant risk factors for the development of coronary heart disease. [1]
Heart disease takes one Australian life every ten minutes, and is the leading cause of death in Australia. In 1993–1994 alone, the health system costs for coronary heart disease were around AU$900 million.
Had a patient asked a doctor twenty years ago whether they believed there was any association between the heart and love, they might have received a chuckle and a pat on the head. However, recent research indicates that joy and interaction are necessities to a healthy heart and body.
Many spiritual and alternative health philosophies have been oriented around the idea that disease is a physical manifestation of a corresponding damaged emotional or psychological condition. It has long been thought that parts of the body represent certain emotions or conditions. For example, the heart represents love; the back represents support, and so on. These ideas have generally received limited support from mainstream medicine, but are they really so far-fetched? Recent research would suggest not.
According to the World Health Organisation, by the year 2020 depression will be the second most prevalent health condition in the world. It is reported that the rate of childhood depression in the United States is increasing at a rate of 23 percent per year. This reflects the situation in Australia—rates of depression are highest in younger age groups, especially females. About half of those affected do not seek medical attention.
In 2001, Australian GPs reported that depression was the fourth most common illness in their practices. GPs have increased their number of prescriptions of antidepressants. The Age Online states that 250,000 antidepressant prescriptions were issued to children and adolescents alone in 2003—an increase of 30,000 from 2002. The statistics call for government and health professionals to take a different approach.
Antidepressants have various adverse effects, including violent and suicidal behavior. Most importantly, pills alone do not address the underlying cause of depression.
Faced with this, health professionals in the future may have to change their traditional approach and begin to incorporate apparently alternative paradigms. We may soon welcome a new age in wholistic medicine.
References:
[1] Stress and coronary heart disease: psychosocial risk factors, National Heart Foundation of Australia position statement update, Medical Journal of Australia, 2003 178 (6): 272-276
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