While the negative link between psychological and cardiovascular health is well-documented, could there be a positive connection? Can psychological health improve heart health? This is what researchers aimed to discover in a new animal study published Friday. Researchers found that activating areas of the brain responsible for motivation and positive outlooks improved recovery from a heart attack. “The study offers a mechanistic understanding of a phenomenon emerging from epidemiological studies,” Asya Rolls, a psychoneuroimmunologist and associate professor at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
On the first day after the heart attack, both groups showed comparable heart damage. However, by Day 14, the VTA-activated mice showed significant improvements in their cardiac performance compared to control mice, demonstrating the positive effects of VTA activation on heart function and recovery. “We observed that VTA stimulation leads to improved remodeling processes and cardiac performance,” the researchers wrote in the study.
In particular, the hearts of VTA mice showed reduced scar tissue formation, increased formation of new blood vessels, and improved heart function compared to control mice. They also discovered that these beneficial effects are mediated by changes in liver function, particularly through increased production and secretion of a protein produced by the liver called complement component 3 (C3). When asked about .