Does Your Heart Have a Mind of Its Own?

Many early civilizations believed that the heart was the center of emotion, a symbol of love and the center of innate wisdom and human character. Now we are realizing that they may have been more correct than we had given them credit for.

In the film Of Hearts and Minds, science documentary filmmaker David Malone explores the human heart. The film starts off in an operating room where open heart surgery is taking place. If you are squeamish about that type of thing, feel free to skip over that part.

The Heart, An Organ of Truth & Emotion:

You may have heard the following statements at one time or another:

1. “I love you with all my heart.”
2. "My heart is full of joy.”
3. "I am broken-hearted.”
4. "They have no heart."
5. "He wears his heart on his sleeve."

Do these statements have some biologically truth to them? This is the question Malone seeks to answer in this film.

The ancient Egyptians saw the heart as an organ of truth. Your heart does seem to be able to tell you the truth about how you feel and what you think is right or wrong. When you lie, for example, your heart rate tends to increase.

As the film goes on, Malone examines if our feelings and emotions really come from our brains, or whether they might actually originate in our hearts.

The ‘Brain’ Within Your Heart:

David Paterson, Ph.D. a professor at Oxford University, straddles the two areas of the brain and the heart. His work shows that your brain is not the sole source of your emotions, but indeed, your heart and brain work together to produce emotions.

Your heart actually contains neurons, similar to those in your brain. Your heart and brain are closely connected, creating a symbiotic emotional whole, which is explained in the film.

Neurons are what allow your brain to form thoughts. So what are they doing around the right ventricle of your heart? While much about the neurons in your heart is still unknown, the “brain” in your heart communicates back and forth with the brain in your head. It is a two-way street.

Intense Negative Emotions Puts Your Heart Health at Risk:

The interplay between your brain and heart can be emphasized by the fact that intense anger boosts your heart attack risk five-fold, and your stroke risk three-fold.

Intense grief after the loss of a loved one also raises your risk of having a heart attack. The day immediately following your loss, your risk of a heart attack goes up by 21 times and remains six times higher than normal for several weeks.

Research also shows that people exposed to traumatic experiences, have higher rates of cardiac problems than the general population.

A Positive Outlook Reduces Your Heart Attack Risk:

If negative emotions have the potential to harm your heart, it would stand to reason that positive emotions may heal it. This indeed seems to be the case. In a study of nearly 1,500 people with an increased risk of early-onset coronary artery disease, those who reported being cheerful, relaxed, satisfied with life and full of energy had a one-third reduction in coronary events like a heart attack.

Those with the highest risk of coronary events enjoyed an even greater risk reduction of nearly 50%. This was true even when other heart disease risk factors, such as smoking, age and diabetes, were taken into account.

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