Even though the brain and the heart are located far from one another in the body, they are intrinsically connected and have a significant impact on how each other functions.
The two organs communicate via the muscular walls around the heart, which are connected to the brain in the circulatory system. As the brain releases hormones telling the body what to do, receptor cells in your blood vessels pick up these messages. In addition, there are nerve endings that travel from the brain to the muscular walls of the heart. These nerves send messages to the muscle tissue to either relax or contract.
Since these two organs communicate, mental health can have a dramatic effect on heart health and vice versa.
Stress
The mind’s response to a perceived or actual threatening situation is known as stress. The body responds to the stress by increasing:
- • Blood pressure
- • Respiratory rate
- • Heart rate
- • Oxygen consumption
- • Blood flow to skeletal muscles
- • Perspiration
- • Muscle tone
