There is little doubt that depression is bad for the heart. Much as fatty diets, cigarette smoking, inactivity and obesity are linked with an increased risk of heart disease, recent evidence suggests that mental health has a similarly powerful impact.

Reasearch published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that depression contributes to heart disease indirectly — by fostering unhealthy behaviors like smoking — rather than directly. The study found that the factors that most increased heart disease risk in depressed people were the ones you might expect: lack of exercise and smoking.

[Read](http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1862542,00.html?xid=rss-topstories “Read the Article”) (Time Magazine)