Oh, what a groundbreaking revelation we have here! In a stunning display of the obvious, a study with a *prospective design* (because who would want to look back, right?) has discovered that—hold your applause—having friends and a little faith might just make you feel better when your heart’s been through the wringer.

A *convenience sample* of 159 lucky patients, who just happened to be at the right place at the right time, were scooped up for a cardiac rehab party. They were poked and prodded for measures of religiosity/spirituality, social support, and the usual suspects: anxiety, depression, quality of life, and whether they could walk and pedal without keeling over.

Lo and behold, social support was like a warm hug, significantly linked to less anxiety and depression, and a better quality of life upon admission. And after adjusting for those pesky variables like age and education, it still gave depression a good kick in the pants. Religiosity/spirituality, on the other hand, was like a placebo pill—making people feel less depressed, improving quality of life, and even exercise capacity at admission. But once the researchers adjusted for covariates, poof! The magic was gone.

But wait, there’s more—or less, actually. When it came to the actual cardiac rehab program, neither your number of pals nor your spiritual bandwidth had any significant impact on improving quality of life or exercise capacity. So, in essence, while having friends and faith might give you a nice starting boost, they don’t seem to pedal the bike for you.

In conclusion, social support may be your emotional armor in the battle against post-cardiac event depression, but when it comes to the long haul of rehab, you’re on your own, champ. Neither your BFFs nor your personal deity will make you sprint faster on that treadmill. But hey, at least you’ll feel loved and spiritually enlightened while you huff and puff, right?