Stay Optimistic, Live Longer?
An optimistic outlook may be good for your health.
In
2004 and again in 2008, researchers used a well-validated questionnaire
to rate 70,021 women on their optimism. The women were asked to
indicate their degree of agreement with six statements (for example, “In
uncertain times, I usually expect the best.”).
Researchers
also collected information on educational and socioeconomic status,
smoking, alcohol consumption, cancer, hypertension and other diseases
and behavioral characteristics. The women’s average age was 70 at the
start of the project.
The
study, in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found significant
associations between increasing levels of optimism and decreasing risks
of death from cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and
infections.
The
associations were particularly strong for cardiovascular disease. Those
in the quarter with the highest optimism scores had a nearly 40 percent
lower risk for heart disease and stroke than those in the lowest
quarter, even after controlling for other health factors. The
associations with cancer were also significant, but weaker.
“People
can have low optimism for a wide array of reasons,” said the lead
author, Eric S. Kim, a research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health. “Twin studies show it’s about 25 percent heritable,
but that means it’s 75 percent social circumstances or under our own
control.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/well/mind/stay-optimistic-live-longer.html?_r=0
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/well/mind/stay-optimistic-live-longer.html?_r=0
