We all know that emotions originate in the brain. But we usually talk about our emotions coming from our hearts. If someone you know doesn't give up easily, you might say, "He's got a lot of heart." Not every culture would agree — for instance, when Italians want to say someone has heart, they say instead, "Ha fegato": "He has liver."

But what about bad emotions? When you feel so sad or so angry that your heart "aches," could it actually be true? Two new studies add support to the theory that, yes, what goes on in your mind can, literally, break your heart.

In the first study, just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (J.A.C.C.,) a team of eight researchers looking at more than 63,000 women who were participants in the ongoing Nurses' Health Study, found that those who reported basic symptoms of depression (like feeling down and incapable of happiness) had a higher-than-normal risk of coronary heart disease. And women who were clinically depressed were more than twice as likely as other women to suffer sudden cardiac death. None of the participants had heart problems at the study's outset, but nearly 8% had symptoms of depression.

The researchers theorize that depression might have some direct physiological impact on the heart — like causing it to work harder in the face of stress. The study also found that the more depressed women were, the more likely they were to smoke cigarettes or have high blood pressure and diabetes — not exactly heart-healthy conditions. Or it may be that the antidepressants prescribed to treat those with mood problems were associated with heart ailments; in the study, sudden cardiac death was linked more strongly with antidepressant use than with women's symptoms of depression.

The antidepressant theory is just that — a theory. It could be that the antidepressant takers in the study were simply the most depressed. But if the theory is substantiated by further research, it would add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that antidepressants carry a high risk (particularly for teenagers) when weighed against the drugs' still uncertain benefits. Scientists have already shown that antidepressants are a bad idea for those about to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery.

No one is sure exactly how depression hurts the heart, and one plausible explanation is that the train runs in the opposite direction — a damaged heart and its consequent stress on the body might activate, somehow, genes or other physiological changes that contribute to depression.

But another new paper, also published in the J.A.C.C., lends credence to the idea that it is our moods that work on our hearts and not the other way around. In this paper, researchers from University College London reviewed the findings of 39 previously published articles and found that men who are angry and hostile are significantly more likely to have a cardiac event than those who aren't. That may sound unsurprising — we all know that anger can stress your heart. But it's important to note the difference between aggression and just being aggressive. Previous studies (here's one) have found that so-called type A's — those who are driven, competitive and obsessed with deadlines — are not more likely to experience heart disease. In other words, your type A co-workers who are annoyingly ambitious and dutiful are no more likely to have a heart attack than you are. Rather, it's the seething, angry types with underlying hostility who are the ticking time bombs. Anger, it turns out, is physiologically toxic.

The authors of the second paper offer the standard theories about how an angry emotion translates to a physical heart attack: angry people have a harder time sleeping; they take prescribed drugs less often; they eat worse, exercise less, smoke more and are fatter. These things add up: compared with the good-humored, those who were angry and hostile — but had no signs of heart problems at the outset — ended up with a 19% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, according to the University College London paper.

The two studies reify gender stereotypes: women get their hearts broken through sadness; men "break" their hearts (via heart attack) through anger. But both studies suggest that men and women have a common interest in understanding that some causes of cardiac disease — poor diet or lack of exercise or bad sleep habits — may have a precipitating cause themselves. Whether male or female, letting yourself get overwhelmed by emotion can damage not only your mind but also that crucial organ, the heart.

我們都知道情感是產(chǎn)生于大腦的，但通常我們會說自己的情感是由心而生的，比如心疼、心酸、心痛、心里甜蜜等等，如果我們覺得某個人不輕易吐露自己的真實想法，我們會說他心機(jī)很深。不是所有的文化都認(rèn)同這一點(diǎn)，比如，當(dāng)意大利人想表達(dá)人心思多，他們會說，"Ha fegato":“他有肝。”（He has liver.）

那消極的情感怎么樣呢？但你感到很傷心或者很憤怒，你會心“痛”，這是真的嗎？兩項最新的研究加強(qiáng)了這一觀點(diǎn)，是的，這些情感的確會讓你心碎。

在第一個研究中，最近才發(fā)表在美國心臟病學(xué)院報上（J.A.C.C.,），由8人組成的研究團(tuán)隊研究了正在進(jìn)行中的護(hù)士健康研究項目參與者中的63，000名女性，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)那些據(jù)說有抑郁癥狀（很失落、不開心）的女性跟正常人比有比較高的冠心病比例。在臨床上被診斷為抑郁癥的人患心臟性猝死的比例是其他人的兩倍。在研究開始的時候沒有參與者是有心臟病的，但差不多8%有抑郁癥狀。

研究者創(chuàng)立了一個理論——抑郁可能對心臟有直接的生理上影響，像在面臨緊張的時候心跳會加速。研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，女性抑郁的程度越深，有煙癮、患高血壓、糖尿病的可能性就越高，這都對心臟健康不利�；蛟S法定的治療情緒問題的抗抑郁藥物對心臟也有一些副作用；在研究中，抗抑郁劑導(dǎo)致的突發(fā)心臟猝死的比例遠(yuǎn)比抑郁癥本身高。

抗抑郁劑理論只是一個理論。研究中的使用者通常是非常抑郁，但是如果有進(jìn)一步的研究來證實這一理論的話，可能會有更多的證據(jù)證明它比藥物（未確定副作用）的使用風(fēng)險更大（尤其是對年輕人）�？茖W(xué)家已經(jīng)證明對于準(zhǔn)備進(jìn)行心臟搭橋手術(shù)的患者來說抗抑郁劑真不是什么好東西。

沒有人能確定抑郁到底是怎樣影響心臟的，一個似是而非的解釋是逆向推理（the train runs in the opposite direction ）——一顆受損的心臟以及它對身體產(chǎn)生的繼發(fā)性緊張某種程度上可能會影響基因或者其他生理上的變化，從而導(dǎo)致抑郁的產(chǎn)生。

但是另一篇也發(fā)表在J.A.C.C.上的新論文認(rèn)為，是我們的情緒作用于心臟而不是其他什么因素。在這篇論文里，倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院的研究人員回顧了先前發(fā)表的39篇文章的調(diào)查結(jié)果，發(fā)現(xiàn)有憤怒和敵對情緒的人患心臟病的幾率顯著高于心態(tài)平和的人。這似乎沒什么好奇怪的，我們都知道生氣會讓心臟緊張。但是值得注意的是攻擊和具有攻擊性是不同的。先前的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，所謂的A型——那些被工作任務(wù)逼迫、處于競爭性環(huán)境中、被最后期限困擾的人——不太可能患心臟病。換句話說，你那些被有進(jìn)取心和使命感的人包圍的同事得心臟病的可能性比你低。有時候憤怒是一種潛在的敵對情緒，像定時炸彈一樣，一觸即發(fā)。它是生理毒藥。

第二份論文的作者給出了憤怒情緒轉(zhuǎn)化成生理上心臟病的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)理論：憤怒的人睡眠都不會太好，然后會用些藥，他們吃不好、運(yùn)動很少、抽煙多、越變越胖。這些因素疊加起來，跟心情愉快的人相比，那些憤怒易發(fā)火的人——但是在一開始沒有任何心臟問題癥狀——最終有發(fā)展成冠心病的風(fēng)險比普通人高19%，根據(jù)倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院報。

這兩個研究都證實了性別模式化理論，女性心碎因為憂傷，男性心碎因為憤怒。但兩個理論都表明女性和女性在理解心臟病成因的問題上有共識——營養(yǎng)不良或者缺乏運(yùn)動后者睡眠習(xí)慣不好——有些原因他們自己都能預(yù)見。不管男性還是女性，如果你被情緒打倒，不僅你的精神會受傷，你的重要器官——心臟也一樣。