Love-Heart Link – Part 1

Love: A Good Medicine

Love-Heart Link – Part 1

Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used to regard the heart as the source of all our love and affection. You may feel the happy and warm vibrations of your heart when you think of your loved one. Or, in the case of someone for whom love becomes a madness or an unstoppable obsession, the heart may skip a beat or begin to race fast. The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first to think that man’s mind was in his heart. (Reference 1)

Your heart is a very special biological pump unlike the usual mechanical (hydraulic) pump. It had cost a great deal of intellectual energy and genius to design world’s first replaceable artificial heart which was transplanted for the first time in medical history by Dr Denton Cooley who had performed surgery on Satyajit Ray and R D Burman, whose names we are very much familiar with. Dr Cooley’s name always remains fresh in my memory as he used to play music throughout the long duration of his complicated cardiac surgery procedures. (References 2 & 3)

The New York cardiologist and author Dr Sandeep Jauhar has written a book titled “Heart: A History” exploring the connection between the fist-sized organ and the ‘heart of love’. To quote him: “The metaphorical heart is the way we thought of the heart before science came along. The heart was the seed of the soul. It was where our emotions resided – emotions like love and courage. And what I have observed in my two decades now as a cardiologist is that the heart that is associated with love, that ‘metaphorical heart’, directly impacts our biological heart. People who have healthy, loving relationships have better heart health.” (Reference 4)

As a matter of fact, the warm feeling of love ramps up our ‘ParaSympathetic Nervous System’ (‘PSNS’), helping us to rest, relax and digest conveniently. Stress is reduced and feelings of anxiety and insecurity are improved. Blood vessels tend to dilate a little bit more, and blood pressure tends to drop when one interacts with the loved one and it can really be felt by those concerned. Research has shown that man and woman who were happily married had less risk of a cardio-vascular problem than single men and women. Thus happy wedlock was found to be a strong safeguard against heart problems. A loving relationship has a positive impact on the heart by encouraging healthy behaviour that reduce the risk of heart disease. Of course, I must tell you that loving relationship must be supplemented by regular light exercise (freehand stretching-bending, brisk walking, slow jogging or yoga), and giving up smoking and consumption of alcohol.

Finally, I must point out that impact of a failed love or lack of love is just reverse on the heart. People who are in loveless or difficult relationships with their partners, spouses or children or who are unhappy at work and in life tend to suffer from heart-related ailments.

[References:1. Sandee LaMotte, “How love sparks better heart health”, CNN health, 14th February 2019.

2. “Denton Cooley” – Wikipedia.

3. Lawrence K. Altman, “Dr Denton Cooley: Whose Pioneering Heart Surgery Let Off a 40-Year Medical Feud, Dies at 96.”, The New York Times, 18th March 2016.

4. Sandeep Jauhar, “Heart: A History”, New York: Penguin Viking, 2018.]