(Photo: Cover: Spiritual Secrets to a Healthy Heart)

Is heart health related to more than just diet and exercise? Noted physician Dr. Kara Davis, MD,  believes so. In her new book, Spiritual Secrets to a Healthy Heart: Uncovering the Roots of America's Number One Killer (Siloam/Charisma House SRP: $14.99), Davis discusses the wisdom of the Bible and combines it with hard medical facts to instruct spiritually-minded people on how to get healthy. "Our physical health is inextricably linked with our spiritual, mental and emotional health," she writes in the introduction."

In Spiritual Secrets to a Healthy Heart, Davis delves into all matters of the heart - both physical and emotional. The books nine chapters are divided among three sections, including "How We Live," which features chapters on the effects of nutrition, physical activity and vices like alcohol consumption and smoking; "How We Feel," which addresses the power of gratitude, optimism versus pessimism and the physical impact of emotions and stress; and "How It Is," a section covering hypertension, diabetes and even the environment's affect on our health.  

"A positive or negative attitude has a strong influence on heart health," says Davis. "In scores of studies examining the impact, the results are impressive. In these pages I cannot possibly cite all the research that identifies a connection between a pessimistic disposition and coronary illness - the data is far too extensive."?? 

Davis is a board-certified physician of internal medicine and chief medical officer of the Christian Community Health Center in Chicago. She is also the author of Supernatural Secrets to Weight Loss: A 50-Day Renewal of Body, Mind, and Spirit. In addition to her medical career, Davis is a pastor's wife and the mother of four children.

Want more BREATHEcast? Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!