Lifestyle changes — along with other proven therapies — can help improve these often-overlapping conditions.
Everyone goes through periods of feeling gloomy, irritable, or listless at least once in a while. And these emotions are perfectly normal after a diagnosis of a serious health problem such as heart disease. But if those unpleasant feelings drag on for weeks and gradually erase your sense of well-being, you may have depression.
Over a lifetime, about one in five Americans is affected by depression. But the risk of depression in people who've had a heart attack is three times as high as the risk among the general population.
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