Smile--Your Heart Needs It
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A recent study on whether an upbeat outlook has healthful benefits indicates that happiness may help protect you from heart disease, reports WebMd. Researchers followed nearly 2,000 healthy adults for 10 years and measured their expression of positive and negative emotions. How often did they exhibit anxiety? Joy? Contentment?
After accounting for known heart disease risk factors, the researchers found that the happiest people were 22% less likely to develop heart disease over the 10 years of follow-up than people who fell in the middle of the negative-positive emotion scale.
People with the most negative emotions had the highest risk for heart disease and people who scored highest for happiness had the lowest risk.
So add to your daily routine a 15 to 20 minute block dedicated to something enjoyable or relaxing, the researchers say. If you are "naturally negative," or live in New York, University of Michigan professor of medicine Bertram Pitt, MD, suggests expressing gratitude on a regular basis and practicing optimism and forgiveness, among others. "Finally, regular exercise and sexual activity and good sleep are all associated with increased self-reported happiness," Pitt writes to WebMD.
(Photo credit: David Shankbone; C.C. 3.0)
Comments
We were laughing about this...
Just yesterday, a friend and I were talking about new habits for this new year, and for Lent. She mentioned that she would add more laughter to her diet because it good for the heart [and soul]. Who knew there was scientific evidence.