When you visit your doctor, do they ask about your mental health?
Tara Narula, cardiologist and medical journalist, believes physicians shouldn’t ignore the mental health of their patients, and for good reason: Mental health has been shown to directly impact both heart and brain health.
While researchers once believed the connection between mental health and heart health was due to behavioral factors, like self-medicating with substances or binge-eating unhealthy foods, they now understand the biological and chemical factors related to mental health that directly impact the heart. Anxiety, chronic stress, and depression have all been shown to contribute to heart disease, as do loneliness and social isolation (American Heart Association, n.d.).
Depression and anxiety have also been linked to cognitive decline and impaired cognitive functioning—the brain’s ability to pay attention, solve problems, remember things, and learn new skills. This is particularly true in older adults (Huang et al., 2026).
For Narula, integrating mental health screening and care into the traditional medical system is important in addressing the undeniable ways that mental health is impacting patients’ physical well-being. She explores how tapping into the power of resilience can help us bridge the gap between medicine and psychology in her book, The Healing Power of Resilience.
Heather Rose Artushin: Share a bit about your background and what inspired you to write The Healing Power of Resilience.
Tara Narula: Over my career as a cardiologist and medical journalist, I’d become acutely aware that physicians were often ignoring the mental health of their patients during treatment. While they give medication and treatment plans, diet and exercise advice, they often miss the big picture of the patient’s life. Are they going through a hard time at work? A divorce? Any number of personal factors can add extra stress in a patient’s life.
Scans and tests only show so much. Even when the physician has the whole picture, a lot of these issues cannot be treated in the doctor’s office. Strengthening your resilience response is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and this book is meant to be a first-of-its-kind companion to those facing a health challenge or simply striving for a healthier life.
HRA: What is the connection between resilience, heart health, and longevity?
TN: Cardiovascular disease kills more people than all forms of cancer and accidents combined. Maintaining a healthy heart is key to longevity, and a large portion of the population will be affected by heart disease.
We need resilience to face a new diagnosis, to show up to doctor’s appointments, to stick to new diets and workout plans, and to accept our new normal. When someone is faced with a traumatic diagnosis or medical event, resilience is incredibly important in facing this uncertainty and getting the best results out of a treatment plan.
HRA: In your experience, how are mental and physical health linked? How can physicians better address both in caring for their patients?
TN: Mental and physical health are definitely linked. One example of this is how stress affects your brain and heart. Both the heart and brain thrive on the healthy stresses in life—like an exercise class or tackling a new challenge at work. Good stresses are energizing, and they help build a resilient heart and brain, making it easier to face these stresses in the future.
However, when the stressors are not healthy, the brain and the heart have an adverse reaction and often change physically. Researchers have found a direct link between chronic stress and changes in the brain and heart. To better address the relationship between mental and physical health, physicians need to ask questions about more than just the physical. Taking the time to understand their patients’ lives, including potential mental stressors, can help bridge the gap in treatment.
HRA: How do some patients demonstrate resilience in the face of challenging medical diagnoses? Do resilient patients tend to fare better physically?
TN: After a challenging medical diagnosis, living in your new normal can be incredibly difficult. So difficult, in fact, that some people lack the motivation to try. Changing your routine and shifting your mindset on life is resilience. Additionally, those who have strong bonds with family and friends or have a clear purpose in life are more likely to thrive under treatment. The ability to bounce forward and adapt mentally helps patients heal and bounce forward physically.
HRA: What can readers do to build resilience to ultimately promote a healthier life?
TN: Beyond leading a physically healthy lifestyle through proper exercise, sleep, and nutrition, readers should work on developing and sustaining relationships with their social circle, work on self-love, and identify the things in their lives that give them purpose and inspire them.
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Cultivating the tools to shift their mindset when confronted with a difficult diagnosis or hardship is the best way to ensure they are reinforcing their resilience response.
HRA: What do you hope readers take away from spending time with your book?
TN: The Healing Power of Resilience is filled to the brim with studies and anecdotes from real-life patients and clinicians who have dealt with a hardship—a diagnosis, the death of a loved one, job loss, etc.—and lived to see the other side due to their strong resilience response.
I hope readers can gain guidance and inspiration from the stories I’ve shared in this book and apply it to their own lives.