Heart disease is often linked to high cholesterol, obesity, or lack of exercise. However, there is mounting evidence that suggests that mental health plays a crucial role in cardiovascular well-being. Stress, anxiety, and depression can silently strain the heart, increasing the risk of serious complications.

A recent study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, showed that loneliness has a significant impact on proteins present in a person's blood. For the study, researchers used data from more than 42,000 participants to explore whether the 9.3% who reported social isolation and 6.4% who reported loneliness had different levels of proteins in their blood compared with those who did not. The researchers then studied data that tracked the health of participants over an average 14-year period.

"We found around 90% of these proteins are linked to the risk of mortality," Dr Chun Shen, Fudan University in China, who is also the lead researcher said. "In addition, about 50% of the proteins were linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke," he added.

Dr Shrey Kumar Srivastav, senior consultant at Sharda Hospital, said that subtle symptoms of heart disease, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling in the lower legs, dizziness, and jaw pain, are often overlooked or attributed to stress and ageing. "Women, in particular, may experience atypical signs like extreme fatigue, indigestion, or upper abdominal pain instead of classic chest pain, leading to delayed diagnosis," he added.

Can Mental Health Issues Trigger Heart Diseases?

Chronic stress can trigger harmful cardiovascular effects, including elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, and inflammation—key contributors to heart disease. Anxiety and depression further impact heart health by disrupting sleep patterns, raising stress hormone levels, and encouraging unhealthy habits like poor diet and inactivity.

Mental health issues like depression and anxiety have a profound impact on the heart. They don’t just affect emotions but can increase inflammation and put extra strain on the cardiovascular system, warns Dr Srivastav.

Certain risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes, disproportionately affect women, making them more vulnerable to heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, due to gender-specific symptom variations, heart disease in women often goes undiagnosed for longer.

Obesity is more prevalent in women than men and is a major risk factor for heart failure. Diabetes, too, has a greater impact on women’s heart health, yet diagnosis and treatment delays are common. Addressing this gap requires increasing awareness, training healthcare providers, and promoting early diagnostic tools,” explains Dr Srivastav.

How Can You Protect Your Heart?

A simple yet effective way to support heart health is by committing to a brisk 30-minute walk daily. Walking not only helps regulate blood pressure and manage weight but also improves circulation and reduces stress.

"Regular physical activity, paired with a heart-healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins, significantly lowers cardiovascular risks," advises Dr Srivastav.

Heart disease can often go undetected until a major event occurs, making routine screenings essential.

- For women: Begin screenings around age 30 and continue with regular checkups.

- For men: Start screenings at age 35.

Health screenings, including blood pressure checks, cholesterol tests, and electrocardiograms (ECGs), are critical for early detection of silent heart conditions.

Watching television for long hours can do more than contributing to a sedentary lifestyle. It could also leave a significant impact on the brain.

According to a new study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, people who watched television very often during midlife later showed smaller brain volumes in regions involved in memory and thinking, along with greater signs of damage linked to dementia and stroke.

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) found that the negative brain changes were unique to passive television viewing and were not simply the result of spending long hours sitting.

Passive TV Watching Could Negatively Alter Brain Structures

The researchers studied data from approximately 1,700 adults enrolled in the long-running Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study.

Participants, whose average age was 53 when their television habits were assessed between 1987 and 1989, reported how frequently they watched television and how much of their workday they spent sitting.

More than two decades later, participants underwent MRI brain scans.

Compared with people who said they "never" or "seldom" watched television, those who watched TV "very often" had:

• Smaller brain volumes in regions associated with memory formation and early Alzheimer's disease.
• Reduced frontal and occipital lobe volumes.
• Greater white matter hyperintensity volumes, a marker of small blood vessel disease in the brain that is linked to cognitive decline, stroke and dementia.

These findings were observed even after researchers accounted for physical activity levels, body mass index, diabetes, smoking and alcohol consumption.

Also read: 10,000 Brain Scans Reveal Why Memory Declines With Age, Challenging Long-Held Theory

More Harmful Than Just Sitting

One of the study's most striking findings was that just sitting for long periods did not produce the same harmful results.

People who spent long periods sitting at work actually showed larger frontal and occipital brain regions and lower white matter damage, suggesting that mentally engaging sedentary activities may affect the brain differently from passive leisure activities like television viewing.

Researchers also observed that the associations were observed more in men, although further studies are needed to understand the reason behind.

"For years we've focused on how much people sit. Our findings suggest we should also pay attention to what they're doing while they're sitting," said David Raichlen, professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and senior author of the study.

Study corresponding author Natan Feter, a postdoctoral scholar in USC Dornsife's Human and Evolutionary Biology program, said the findings could eventually reshape public health advice.

He said, "We frequently encourage the public not to spend too much time sitting down, but experts may want to expand that recommendation to encompass the activities done while sitting, since those seem to have distinct impacts on brain health."

The researchers cautioned that the study on television viewing was based on self-reported questionnaires, which may be less accurate than objective tracking. In addition, participants did not undergo brain scans at the beginning of the study, making it difficult to directly measure changes over time.

A recent massive study analysed more than 10,000 brain MRI scans and delivered fresh insights into why memory worsens as people age.

The study suggested that age-related memory decline is not caused by damage to a single brain region, as previously believed, but by widespread structural changes across the brain.

Researchers examined 10,343 MRI brain scans alongside 13,460 memory assessments from 3,737 cognitively healthy adults across 13 long-running international studies.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, are based on one of the largest investigations of healthy brain aging to date.

Age-Related Memory Loss Involves More Than Hippocampus

For decades, scientists have focused on the hippocampus, a brain region essential for learning and memory, and one of the earliest brain areas affected by Alzheimer's disease.

However, the new study found that although the hippocampus remains the strongest factor to consider memory decline, it is far from being the only region involved.

Researchers discovered that shrinking brain tissue in multiple interconnected regions, including areas linked to the hippocampus and several parts of the temporal lobe, collectively contributes to declining memory with age.

Brain Shrinkage Occurs Over Decades

Also read: Your Country May Influence Your Dementia Risk More Than You Think, Study Suggests

The researchers found that the link between brain shrinkage and memory loss becomes much stronger after the late 50s.

Rather than following a steady, gradual path, memory decline appears to accelerate as structural changes accumulate across multiple brain regions.

The study also showed that individuals with shrinkage affecting a greater number of brain regions experienced faster declines in memory, highlighting that brain aging varies considerably from person to person.

Alzheimer's Risk Gene Isn't The Only Factor

Also read: Healthy Lifestyle Changes Improve Memory, Thinking In Older Adults At Dementia Risk: The Lancet

The team also evaluated the role of APOE ε4, the best-known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.

While carriers of the gene generally showed faster brain volume loss and memory decline, researchers found that genetics alone could not explain the observed changes.

Instead, widespread structural changes throughout the brain played a much larger role in determining memory performance.

Senior author Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and senior scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, said, "By integrating data across dozens of research cohorts, we now have the most detailed picture yet of how structural changes in the brain unfold with age and how they relate to memory."

He added, "These results suggest that memory decline in aging is not just about one region or one gene. It reflects a broad biological vulnerability in brain structure that accumulates over decades. Understanding this can help researchers identify individuals at risk early and develop more precise and personalized interventions that support cognitive health across the lifespan and prevent cognitive disability."

The researchers say this could improve how scientists identify people at risk for future cognitive decline before symptoms become severe.

Instead of monitoring only the hippocampus or focusing primarily on genetic risk, future screening and interventions may need to evaluate the health of multiple interconnected brain networks.

Lifestyle Changes Can Help

While there is no cure for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's, growing evidence suggests that healthy lifestyle changes can help improve brain health and preserve cognitive function in older adults at risk.

A major study published in The Lancet suggests that adopting healthy lifestyle habits can significantly improve memory and thinking skills in older adults at risk of dementia.

The study found that a culturally adapted, structured lifestyle program delivered across 11 Latin American countries produced meaningful improvements in cognitive function over two years. Participants in the intensive program showed 55 per cent greater improvement in overall cognition than those who received general health advice.

Millions of Americans hit the gym hoping the numbers on the scale will quickly drop. But if weeks of consistent workouts haven't translated into evident weight loss, a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) can explain why.

Published in the journal Circulation recently, the review explains why exercise alone is not enough to achieve meaningful weight loss unless it is combined with dietary changes or very high levels of physical activity.

However, researchers stress that even when body weight barely changes, regular exercise delivers powerful benefits for heart health, metabolism, and overall well-being.

Exercise Alone May Not Lead To Major Weight Loss

The AHA study says that while physical activity burns calories, many people unknowingly compensate by eating more or moving less throughout the rest of the day. As a result, hitting the calorie deficit needed for significant weight loss is often missed.

The statement found that exercise by itself usually results in less than 5% body weight loss unless aerobic activity reaches approximately 225 to 420 minutes per week. Fewer than 15% of people achieve clinically significant weight loss through exercise alone.

Most individuals lose only around 3% of their body weight with exercise without making dietary changes. The health benefits begin long before the scale changes

Researchers emphasize that focusing only on body weight misses many of the most important effects of exercise.

Also read: ICMR Study Highlights India’s Silent Cholesterol Crisis: 9 In 10 Adults Have At Least One Abnormal Blood Lipid

Regular physical activity can:

• Lower blood pressure
• Improve cholesterol levels
• Enhance insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control
• Reduce inflammation
• Improve cardiovascular fitness
• Lower the risk of heart disease and premature death

These health improvements can occur even when there is little change in body weight.

Exercise Helps Preserve Muscle While Losing Fat

One of the biggest concerns during weight loss is losing muscle along with fat. According to the AHA, combining exercise, particularly resistance training, with calorie deficit helps preserve lean muscle mass.

Maintaining muscle is important because it supports metabolism, mobility, strength, and healthy blood sugar regulation.

Researchers also note that consuming adequate protein alongside resistance exercise further helps protect muscle during weight loss.

One of the researchers said, "For most people, cardio exercise without changing your diet is unlikely to result in a large amount of weight loss. Dietary changes remain the primary driver of weight loss. However, physical activity plays a powerful supporting role when combined with other treatments, including healthy eating, weight loss, medications, or surgery. Exercise can help people lose a little more weight, preserve important lean mass, especially with resistance exercise, and improve overall health."

Also read: Risks Of Plastic Pollution: Study Finds Microplastics In Heart Arteries Can Cause Severe Heart Attacks

Dr. Danielle L. Swift, chair of the scientific statement writing group and professor at the University of Virginia, said in an American Heart Association news release, "Maintaining weight loss is often more difficult than achieving it."

The statement highlights that consistent physical activity is one of the strongest predictors of keeping lost weight off over the long term.

US Obesity Crisis

The findings come as obesity continues to affect more than four in 10 adults in the US, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and several cancers. At the same time, the AHA reports that only one in four U.S. adults meets the recommended physical activity guidelines.

The authors say people should rethink what "success" looks like after starting an exercise routine. If blood pressure falls, cholesterol improves, energy increases, sleep improves, and fitness rises, meaningful health improvements are occurring even if the scale moves slowly.