She said “fine.” Her cholesterol was perfect. Her life was not. Your heart is listening. How stress, loneliness, and grief reach the heart through the immune system, and what actually lowers the risk. TL;DR Chronic stress, depression, anxiety, trauma, and loneliness are not feelings that tag along with heart disease. They are measurable cardiovascular risk factors. We can now trace the path: the brain senses threat, nerves and stress hormones carry the alarm, the bone marrow