She oversees a study at the MGH Revere HealthCare Center involving “low-income, stress-laden women’’ who come together to share their stories, find friendship and support, and treat their common risk factors for heart disease: depression, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and, Wood notes, lack of self-esteem. The study’s name, HAPPY Heart, includes an acronym for Heart Awareness and Primary Prevention in Your neighborhood.
After graduating from medical school, Wood traveled from rural Texas to Nova Scotia with her then-husband, living among women who did not assert any control over their lives.
“Heart disease strikes many women in depressed areas of rural Nova Scotia where the fishing industry is determined by the weather,’’ she said in an interview. “I saw a common thread with women in Texas. Having good health was low on the list of priorities.’’
Wood wanted to document the link between emotions and physical health. But it was hard to get funding for a whole-life approach, she said.
She participated in public studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in order to develop a track record, Wood said, “then I was able to do my own work with high-risk, low-income women.’’
Wood found an anonymous benefactor who donated $1 million to fund her study.
In “Smart at Heart,’’ Wood writes that there are 10 bridges between the physical heart and the emotional heart. Each chapter deals with one of them. She talks about the “fearless’’ women in the Revere study, including Linda Giordano of Malden.
For Giordano, joining a roomful of strangers to talk about their problems was a new experience. She acknowledged it wasn’t natural for her to reach out for help. She was housebound with severe depression and had no friends. She was obese with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. She did not exercise.
