Are you depressed? In a bad relationship? Stressed out over the economy? All of the above? If so, you could be at a greater risk for heart disease.

There is a new study that links serious depression to sudden cardiac death in women. Depression linked to heart disease...

Severe depression may silently break a seemingly healthy woman's heart. Doctors have long known that depression is common after a heart attack or stroke, and worsens those people's outcomes. Monday, Columbia University researchers reported new evidence that depression can lead to heart disease in the first place.

The scientists tracked 63,000 women from the long-running Nurses' Health Study between 1992 and 2004. None had signs of heart disease when the study began, but nearly 8 percent had evidence of serious depression.

The depressed women were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death — death typically caused by an irregular heartbeat, concluded the 12-year study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. They also had a smaller increased risk of death from other forms of heart disease.

How is your marriage? Are you happy? Did you know that an unhappy marriage could increase a woman's risk for heart disease?

A strained marriage can lead to heart disease risks for women. A new study show the chances of developing depression, leading to metabolic syndrome and obesity is worse for women in strained marriages than for men. The result is increased heart disease risk for women who are in an unhappy marriage.

Here is a video about the health problems women experience when they are in an unhappy marriage...

And recently I blogged about a new study that found women are increasingly stressed over money and the economy.

If you haven't already lost your job, you are probably worried that you might. If you aren't already struggling to pay your mortgage, you may worry that at some point you will struggle. If you are married, you may find yourself fighting with your significant other over money much more often than you had in the past. And if you're single, you may be wishing you weren't alone in your financial struggles. It seems we are all affected one way or another to this poor economy.

Are you worried that stress or depression could be putting your heart health at risk?  Let us know in comments.

Here are some links to women blogging about depression:

Depression and Major Depression

Depression Sucks

Debt Depression

Depression Hurts

Fatigue and Depression

Small Comforts for Depression

Also See:

Do you know your resting heart rate?

Calcium and Heart Disease

Broken Hearts Club

Start A Heart Healthy Workout

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
at Catherine-Morgan.com and Women4Hope