There are ways you can reduce many of the behaviors that raise the risk of heart disease — even while managing a mental illness.

Emory study: Mental illnesses may double risk of heart disease

Nearly half of Americans are affected by cardiovascular disease, while about 1 in 4 lives with a mental health condition.

A newly released report from Emory University points to a deeper connection between these two growing health challenges. According to the findings, certain mental health conditions can increase the risk of developing heart disease by 50% to 100% — and for those already diagnosed, the likelihood of severe outcomes in existing heart conditions may rise by 60% to 170%.

“It’s not only important to realize that people with mental disorders are at higher risk, according to disease, but also people with cardiovascular disorders are more likely to show mental health problems,” lead researcher Viola Vaccarino told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Vaccarino, a professor of cardiovascular research in Emory’s School of Public Health and School of Medicine, said the main goal of her team’s work was to provide an overview of research on cardiovascular health “with particular emphasis on the disparities that involve people with mental disorders.”

Depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and, more recently, post-traumatic stress disorder are among the mental health conditions linked to a significantly higher risk of heart disease. Of these, schizophrenia — though relatively rare — shows the strongest association.

After 8 years of service, this Georgia hospital facility dog is retiring

Nugget with his handler and mom, Harleigh Smith.

When Nugget first started at Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta eight years ago, she immediately hit the ground running — tail wagging — with one mission: to make every day a little brighter.

“She got here on a Monday, and by Friday, she was doing her first inpatient interactions, hanging out with some of our oncology patients at the time,” Harleigh Smith, Nugget’s handler and child life specialist at the hospital, told the AJC.

Since joining the staff in 2017, 10-year-old Nugget — the hospital’s first facility dog — has brightened the lives of many patients. Now, she’s retiring.

“She was definitely a trailblazer, and we figured out very quickly that this was gonna be a game changer for our pediatric hospital here in Augusta,” Smith said.

Nugget was born and raised at a service dog training facility in Milton, where she was trained to support people with disabilities, including those living with epilepsy, autism and mobility limitations. At around 10 months old, she was recognized for her unique, calm temperament.

In the eight years since Nugget joined, the golden retriever has done extraordinary work. She has been involved in 29,682 patient and family interventions, which include over 5,500 procedures involving a needle.

How light therapy can help ward off the winter blues

Seasonal affective disorder symptoms typically appear in the fall, worsen through the winter months and eventually go away in the spring or summer.

Summer is gone, daylight saving has ended and the warm, sunny days are giving way to cooler, longer nights.

With these changes, many people may find themselves feeling the effects of SAD, or seasonal affective disorder. While it’s common, exposure to the right kind of light can make a noticeable difference.

A person suffering from SAD experiences mood changes that begin and end with seasonal changes. They often experience “winter blues” during the shorter days of the fall and winter, but feel better by springtime.

The cause? According to Robert Levitan, a University of Toronto professor and senior scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, it comes down to light.

“One of the things that’s unusual about SAD is that it’s the only form of depression where we know the trigger, which is a lack of environmental light,” he told the American Heart Association.

Light therapy has been used to treat seasonal affective disorder for decades, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The treatment involves a patient sitting in front of a 2,500 to 10,000-lux light box for 30 to 45 minutes every day from fall to spring. Roughly 20 times brighter than a normal indoor light, the light box is designed to mimic sunlight with minimal UV rays.

MapHabit helps caregivers, patients navigate life

MapHabit provide innovative cognitive support solutions that foster independence and improve well-being.

Caregivers of dementia patients frequently find themselves navigating new and challenging roles without formal training, education or support. Some might long for a road map to help them. Now, thanks to the innovations of an Atlanta-based company, they can have one.

MapHabit is a neuroscience-based platform that allows users to map their daily caregiving routines visually, making it easier for a helper to step in and pick up the slack when needed.

Matt Golden co-founded MapHabit with Stuart Zola, a neuroscientist and adviser to would-be entrepreneurs at Emory University, nearly seven years ago. The user base has grown to several thousand — mainly family caregivers who need routines not only for their loved ones but also to prioritize their own self-care.

After meeting with a health care professional, steps for care — medication and day-to-day hygiene, diet and exercise activities — can be hard for some caregivers to process and remember. MapHabit is designed to help build habits that allow them to remember these steps and to set patients up with household tasks they can still do but may need reminders to start.

And visual mapping, Golden pointed out, also allows caregivers to overcome the “learned helplessness” that often comes with the role and prevents them from seeking assistance.

A Better You

Mental health experts are still uncovering how grief reshapes the body and mind.

When does the grieving end? Understanding living with loss long term

Grief takes many forms. From lost loved ones to life-changing injuries, it can make us feel frozen in place. For anyone grieving, one question often lingers: How long will this last?

The answer is complicated. Mental health experts are still uncovering how grief reshapes the body and mind.

For instance, the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — have been around for over 55 years. There’s a problem, though. Many experts think they’re wrong.

Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the concept in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying.” The stages, however, were used to specifically describe the experience of patients facing terminal illness, not general bereavement. The theory’s use to describe grief has been criticized by mental health experts ever since.

Professor Charles A. Corr, Ph.D., a former chairperson of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement, wrote in 2018 that it “can actually do damage when misapplied to individuals or applied too rigidly, and should be set aside as an unreliable guide to both education and practice.”

Despite its popularity, the five stages may oversimplify an experience that’s deeply personal. Grief doesn’t follow a script and neither does healing.

🤝 Explore how to better understand grief, according to mental health experts

Atlanta’s wind phone helps mourners ‘grieve out loud’

Bereaved Georgians are being invited to speak, even if only to the wind.

Grief during the holiday season can be especially difficult. Reminders of happier days when our loved ones were still with us can stop us in our tracks.

But some of Atlanta’s bereaved have found a way through it, and it doesn’t take much to participate. All you have to do is stop by, pick up the phone and dial in. Georgia’s wind phones are ready to take your call.

These inoperative telephones, usually of the older rotary or push-button variety, are located along wooded walking trails, in parks or on church grounds. The inert installations are scattered across the world and, without so much as a dial tone, offer users something arguably profound — the opportunity to grieve out loud.

The Grief House is participating in Woodruff Park’s “The Space Within” art display, a collection of public art designed to inspire reflection and inner peace — including the state’s latest wind phone in downtown Atlanta. According to international cataloger My Wind Phone’s database, Georgia had at least seven wind phones before the Woodruff Park art display was installed.

“It’s a reminder that you can talk to your loved ones and that maybe there’s something to be said for still trying to connect with the ones you’ve lost,” Sascha Demerjian, Ph.D., the Grief House co-founder and executive director, said. “Because we carry that with us so much of the time, but we don’t talk about it.”

📞 Hear from a grieving mother who found community through Woodruff Park’s wind phone

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