A recent issue of the journal Circulation provides hard evidence that optimism and health are connected. Researchers studied nearly 100,000 women over eight years, tracking how many heart attacks they suffered and how long they lived. The conclusion? Optimism is good for you.
“Optimists had a 16% lower risk of having heart attacks,” says the lead author, Dr. Hilary Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. And this study, it turns out, is not the first to link optimism with better health. A 2004 study of nearly 1000 elderly Dutch people found a connection between optimism and a lower risk of death from heart disease. The reverse seems to hold true, too. Pessimists—who were followed in a 2000 Mayo Clinic study that looked at more than 800 patients over 30 years—ran a 19% higher risk of early death than optimists.
Being an optimist also has been associated with a healthier immune system and an ability to better cope with physical pain. Still other studies have connected a positive attitude to a quicker recovery from heart surgery and a reduced likelihood of re-hospitalization, as well as to a superior ability to handle the emotional upheaval of life-threatening illnesses like cancer.
“Optimism and pessimism affect health almost as clearly as do physical factors,” says Dr. Martin Seligman, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
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