National Alliance on Mental Illness
Hearts & Minds Education

NAMI Hearts and Minds Educational Initiative

The NAMI Hearts & Minds program is an online, interactive, educational initiative promoting the idea of wellness in both mind and body. Wellness is an ongoing process of learning how to make choices that support a more successful, healthy life.

Engaging in a wellness effort can make a huge difference in the quality of your life. One study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that taking the wellness approach can result in a 17 percent decline in total medical visits and a 35 percent decline in medical visits for minor illnesses.

Wellness is about the individual; you can decide what parts of your life you would like to change and you can determine your own success.

People living with mental illness are often at higher risk for heart disease and much of that risk is preventable. People living with mental illness are more likely to have classic heart-risk factors, such as cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes, elevated cholesterol and hypertension (high blood pressure), some of which can be compounded by some antipsychotic medications.

America is having an epidemic of diabetes according to the New England Journal of Medicine. Unfortunately, the risk is greater for people living with mental illness, especially those taking second-generation atypical antipsychotic medications (SGAs). Another issue to be aware of is metabolic syndrome, a condition that can be a precursor to diabetes.

The more you know, the more you can increase your odds of living a long and full life. Even small changes in your choices can help improve your life.