Study: Optimistic women live a long healthy life

by Natalie James - August 11, 2009 - 0 comments

<strong>Chicago, August 11:</strong> Optimism not only broadens people’s vision to view their life in an absolute positive way, it is even good for human health, especially for middle aged women.

Although the research team is still ambiguous why optimist women were healthier, their findings suggest that these women were less likely to be depressed and to smoke

Chicago, August 11: Optimism not only broadens people’s vision to view their life in an absolute positive way, it is even good for human health, especially for middle aged women.

A novel study by U.S. researchers indicates that optimistic women are less likely to develop heart disease.

Optimistic people have a more positive outlook on life, always believing that people and events are inherently good. That is why optimist people are at a reduced heart disease risk, the research suggests.

Study details
In the study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, it has been found that people with a cheerful and more relaxed outlook on life tended to be in better health than those who take a darker view of life.

To determine the effect of positive thinking on health, U.S. researchers analyzed health records of more than 97,000 American women, aged 50 to 79, some of whom were optimists, while others were pessimists.

Study findings
After eight years of follow-up, the researchers found that women deemed to be optimists were 9 percent less likely to develop heart disease than pessimist women, thus were less likely to die early.

Optimists in the study had a 14 percent lower risk of dying.

"The majority of evidence suggests that sustained, high degrees of negativity are hazardous to health," said Dr. Hilary A. Tindle, internist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and lead author of the study.

"As a physician, I'd like to see people try to reduce their negativity in general," he said.

Although the research team is still ambiguous why optimist women were healthier, their findings suggest that these women were less likely to be depressed and to smoke. In addition, they were more likely to be younger, to have a higher level of education and to earn more, as well as to be more religious compared to the pessimists in the study.

"This study is a very reasonable stepping stone to future research in this area – both on potential mechanisms of how attitudes may affect health, and for randomised controlled trials to examine if attitudes can be changed to improve health," Dr Tindle said.

Dr Tindle and his team reported their findings in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 22:07 | Write to author: Natalie James |