Improved Lives

After a new study examining the link between heart disease, death, and optimism found that more optimistic people were less likely suffer both heart disease and death as a result of heart disease, the American Heart Association has put out a release highlighting the results.

The study was on women, sorry men, and found that:

Optimistic women have a lower risk of developing heart disease or dying from any cause compared to pessimistic women, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers also reported that women with a high degree of cynical hostility — harboring hostile thoughts toward others or having a general mistrust of people — were at higher risk of dying; however, their risk of developing heart disease was not altered.

“As a physician, I’d like to see people try to reduce their negativity in general,” said Hilary A. Tindle, M.D., M.P.H., lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

“The majority of evidence suggests that sustained, high degrees of negativity are hazardous to health.”

I find it fascinating that these psychological changes can have such dramatic physical benefits as well. From the perspective of Western medicine it seems like such a strange idea, but from a more holistic perspective I suppose it makes a lot of sense.

The release from the American Heart Association also mentions:

Optimists were less likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or depressive symptoms, smoke, be sedentary or have a high body mass index. However, the relationship between optimism and heart disease and death persisted even after considering all of these factors.

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