Last year I ran a fascinating study about the direct connection between emotions and physical health. It showed that the pace of physical healing was governed by the amount of hostility married couples showed toward each other, as well as the lack of it.

So it's not surprising that marital discord can trigger all sorts of heart-damaging problems as well.

This is yet one more piece of evidence that happier people are generally healthier. Stress is a key factor in any illness and it plays a major role in the health of nearly every patient I see.

To completely eliminate stress from your life is virtually impossible and probably unhealthy. It is not that stress itself is unhealthy, without stress we would be bored to death. Exercise is a type of stress and without it our health rapidly deteriorates.

So it is not stress that is the problem but the way we handle it. If you don't learn how to deal with stress in a healthy way, your brain may actually "rewire itself," altering its connections in such a way so it affects the way the brain functions.

So what can you do about it?

Clearly the key is not to eliminate the stress itself but rather adjust your body's ability to tolerate it. I've found energy psychology tools, like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), can be very useful to battle the dual effects of stress and depression.