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Optimism is Good for You!
March 10, 2010
I’ve always believed in the positive and healing power of optimism, and now hard evidence backs this up.
A study published in the journal Circulation tells about how researchers followed approximately 100,000 women over eight years, looking at how long they lived and how many heart attacks they suffered.
And guess what? “Optimists had a 16% lower risk of having heart attacks,” stated the lead author, Dr. Hilary Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The article, written by Dr. Ranit Mishori, goes on to tell about another study in 2004 in Holland. Researchers looked at nearly 1,000 elderly Dutch people and “found a connection between optimism and a lower risk of death from heart disease.” And interestingly, “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.”
Why is it important to be an optimist? According to Dr. Mishori:
- They have healthier immune systems
- They are better able to cope with pain
- They recover faster from surgeries with a reduced likelihood of re-hospitalization
- They have “a superior ability to handle the emotional upheaval of life-threatening illnesses like cancer”
So are you an optimist or pessimist? Now is a good time to look at how your attitude might just be affecting your health and the overall quality of your life. By consciously choosing to be positive about the future and about things going on around you, you could start to feel better mentally and physically as well!
~ Lisa Quast
Source: Article, “Why Optimism is Powerful Medicine”, by Dr. Ranit Mishori
http://www.parade.com/health/2009/11/15-optimism-powerful-medicine.html
or
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100249301
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