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 ‘Healthy mind leads to healthy body’. We listen to this aphorism many times, but have you heard that healthy mind leads to healthy heart? Yes, healthy mind plays a vital role in proper working of heart and vice-versa. Not only cardiovascular diseases but did any disorder that brings mental stress.  Brain is the control center of all activities, and beating of heart is one of the activities performed by it. Depression, anxiety, stress, etc. are some mental illnesses that affect the healthy heart. Before moving into the details of linkage between heart and mental illness, let’s probe into the biological aspect of this linkage. When a person suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, etc. for a long period of time, many physiological effects such as increased heart rate, reduced blood flow to the heart because of catecholamine, high cortisol level which leads to hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenal axis deregulation, etc. arises. Prolonged exposure to these physiological effects lea...

  Have you ever felt  the heart’s sound ?  Many people have listened this sound with the help of stethoscope which is lub-dub . In the situation of COVID,  many of us can feel   sans   stethoscope. There are two ways to see the condition of the heart in this pandemic : first is that , during the lockdown period everything was stuck ; no movements have been observed  at all around the world . At that moment , Indians were enjoying the family time, many employees workers and students came back to their hometown. Also, the nature had shown its real beauty which was fabulous for the heart because it hasn't been seen since many years. Everyone’s heart was overfilled with respect and love for their family members and neighbours.Moreover, People started having homemade healthy and nutritious food , that was a major health change in this fast-food era . Everyone was enjoying that time and heart was feeling the aroma of the nature  The whole trouble was st...

Waking up at 8am, taking your coffee on the go, catching that last bus to work, rustling through the files and eating that same boring lunch. Good food was a luxury, to be enjoyed only on weekends. What we used to call as “monotony” and “boring” is what we miss the most now. While the COVID outbreak has put the need of good health and nutrition to the front, the measures we’ve had taken to limit the spread (lockdown) of the disease have made it problematical for many of us to eat healthy and maintain an active lifestyle. Earlier we didn’t have much time to browse and increase our culinary vocabulary. But now we know 10 different ways to cook the same zucchini. But the question remains, are those ways healthy? Many recipes use more than required amount of butter or cheese to make it taste delicious. With the great power of internet, we have a sea of free and unregulated information available globally. As popularly known as double edged sword, internet is in spotlight again. In a recent ...

 The concept of being “healthy” is usually associated with physical health, and mental health is usually overlooked. It has been regarded as taboo in the past and people with mental health problems were usually stigmatized or discriminated against. However, in recent years, the importance of Mental Health is being globally acknowledged and it has even been included as a target in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3.4). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death worldwide. [1] In 2016, approximately 17.9 million people died due to cardiovascular disease- related deaths. [1] These account for almost 31% of deaths across the globe. [1] Of these, over three- quarters of these cardiovascular disease- related deaths occur in low- and middle- income countries. [1] Chaddha et al, advise the usage of the term “mental distress” instead of “mental illness,” as the latter restricts its scope to a particular subset of medical co...

 The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown limitations have influenced all everyday issues far and wide. Things are not as they once were. Whole world is fighting this battle with their best efforts. Isolation, and therefore the constant barrage of stories regarding the COVID- 19 pandemic had effects on the mental well-being of the population. Such an environment might also impact on people’s interest in food; for a few a loss of appetite and reduced food intake, while for others a rise in stress- or comfort-eating. It has negative impacts on health which could include under nutrition or conversely weight gain and increased risks related to this is mostly on our health and mainly on heart. Apart from effect on food choice, lockdown scene and lack of physical activity has increased intake of high-calorie snacks, takeaway foods etc., which further contributed to weight gain and low mood. If I talk about my lockdown, it was never happened with me as health care professional. Being a ...

 Ayurveda embraced with doctrine of fundamental tenets that helps in the promotion , prevention and maintenance of heart health. The concept of epidemiology is clearly explained in the ancient Ayurvedic text. While explaining the etiological factors of various hazardous diseases Ayurvedic research scholars also described the management and rehabilitation to prevent the disease and increase the immunity ultimately to maintain the state of stability among individuals suffering from disease. Unhealthy Habits during COVID-19- Lock down during the pandemic is very important measure to control the spread of disease,but there are a lot of disadvantages multitude the incidence of various psychological as well as cardiac disorders. An unhealthy routines include unhealthy activities and unhealthy dietary behaviors during this pandemic responsible for creating health havoc. Lack of physical activity and not following the dietary rules and regulation disturbs the metabolism ultimately disturbs...

 A global pandemic, the worst economic recession recorded in the history, democracy and human rights in jeopardy, the absence of human touch, the unspoken isolation and loneliness that COVID comes with and the list goes on. All of a sudden, the human mind and heart that were previously invested in climbing up the ladder of progress is now slowing down to just stay put on the ladder. The striving and need for more, is now being replaced by surrendering and the thought that “Maybe this is enough?” Heart during the times of COVID is a strange and unexplainable phenomenon. The last few months have been challenging, but also strangely comforting. Comforting because, in a generation of consumerism and hustle culture frenzy, I have come to understand what truly is valuable. Valuable to mankind, valuable to the human heart. Connection – While we battle this pandemic, one thing that has become more apparent than ever before is the importance of connection. The value of meaningful connection...

 The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had ide ranging consequences for everyone in the world. Not only has the health infrastructure come under close scrutiny and COVID has claimed the lives of many people, but, the effect has stretched into the lives of people, who were not even infected by this virus. To contain the spread of the virus, the first community mitigation measure, adopted at the community level throughout the globe was the imposition of a “lockdown”. This compelled the people to stay indoors and not venture out, unless necessary. This exercise continued for a span of quite a few months at a stretch and in ongoing in some parts, even till date. The effect of this step was very rampant and affected the economies of various nations significantly and also had a huge impact on the mental health of the populations. “Work-from-home” got added to the urban vocabulary as soon as the lockdown had started. Working for long hours, overcoming network issues and managing...

  IS IT IN MY MIND OR MY HEART OR MAYBE BOTH?  Matters of the Heart - Mental Health and Cardiovascular Health Health by definition goes like this; “ Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being in which disease and infirmity are absent” . For the physical component we tend to eat healthy and exercise, for social well-being we bond with our near and dear ones but how often do we acknowledge our mental health. Cardiologists are always spoken high about but why going to a psychologist or psychiatrist is always a hushed voice. The interrelationship of mind-heart is always neglected or misunderstood in our country. Imagine, you’re on the highways and riding your car at a speed of 150kmph, suddenly a wild boar tries passing by. You’re under tremendous amount of stress at this moment and try applying brakes but this wouldn’t help but lead to the collapse of the car. *BOOM* That’s exactly how the heart is when your mind is experiencing stress. We all know that th...

Head to Heart Connection  The heart is the vital organ in our body as this muscular pump is responsible for keeping our organs alive. However, the heart and brain as organs are located in different regions in our body but these both are closely connected to each other. The effect on the brain by negative emotions and attitudes can adversely affect the heart also.  There is a common perception among our minds like a heart disease is linked only with a lack of a lack of physical activity,smoking ,more alcohol intake ,poor diet ,infact being stick to these unhealthy behaviours might do enhance the risk of various cardiovascular disease by putting our heart health in rags.but the thoughts ,emotions and atttitudes are also the foremost considerations that also comes in the way of adopting healthy habits in life to get hold of a healthy life in our lufe and sustaining it.Mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression can be the starting point of a heart disease and vice vers...

Lockdown has affected our lives in unimaginable ways. Who thought that suddenly, we will have to be isolated in our homes, travelling would become a far fetched dream, meeting your friends or family would bring danger, the big fat Indian weddings would turn into zoom and Skype meetings, formal wears would be replaced by lower and T shirts and most importantly our daily lifestyle would change drastically. I think most of our first reaction to lockdown was “lets collect grocery as soon as possible”. And then, began the series of Master Chef on social media. For different people, lockdown brought different changes. 1.        The singles who got stuck because of their jobs and didn’t know cooking Well, I consider this class as the unluckiest people. Even if they stocked up grocery, they didn’t know what to do with that. So, over a series of video calls with their mothers and YouTube videos, they learnt basic cooking during initial days of lockdown. Some o...