6 PAID CONTENT W hen you visit your doctor’s office for a yearly check-up, it’s common for them to check your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. That’s important. But so is taking stock of your mental outlook. Unfortunately, that usually gets little, if any time, in a typical doctor’s visit. “There isn’t a quick test to assess mental health factors that affect heart health, including stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness, but these factors are very important,” says Mimi Guarneri, MD, an integrative cardiologist in La Jolla, California, and author of 108 Pearls to Awaken Your Healing Potential (Hay House, Inc., 2017). “For example, people who are depressed are less likely to comply with lifestyle change recommendations, less likely to eat well and less likely to exercise.” Similarly, people who are stressed may develop unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as dipping into a carton of ice cream. mind/heart Practicing transcendental meditation may reduce systolic blood pressure by about 4 mmHg and diastolic pressure by 2 mmHg. The connection