How Optimism Can Promote Better Health

Do you consider yourself a pessimist or an optimist? If you have the latter perspective towards life, you may experience better health. According to a new study, optimists are less likely to suffer from chronic diseases than their pessimist counterparts.

Study Links Optimism to Lower Risk of Heart Disease and Death

For the study, researchers examined the health data on over a quarter-million men and women. Specifically, researchers looked at rates of chronic diseases as well as the participants' mental outlook on life. So, what did they find? Researchers discovered that people who have an optimist perspective towards life were 35% less likely to develop heart disease than people who have a pessimistic perspective towards life. Researchers also found that optimists were less likely to die from all causes than pessimists.

"Thought patterns and mindsets are the most intimate parts of our experience,” said lead researcher and study author Dr. Alan Rozanski,"We have known for a few decades now that there's a relationship between psychological factors and heart disease."

How Optimism Lowers the Risk of Heart Disease

Heart disease is a major problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 610,000 Americans die each year in the United States from heart disease. Also known as cardiovascular disease, heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States as well as many other countries.

It's unknown exactly how optimism lowers the risk of heart disease, though some experts attribute the heart health benefits of optimism to various chemical changes in the body. When you have an optimistic perspective towards life, your body will produce more "good" chemicals like oxytocin and fewer "bad" chemicals like cortisol. As these chemicals changes occur in your body, your blood pressure will normalize, thereby lowering your risk of heart disease and related cardiovascular conditions.

You might be wondering how to shift your perspective on life so that it's more optimistic and less pessimistic. Well, there are a few things you can do, one of which involves training your brain. There's an old saying that you focus on the bright side of things. Rather than focusing on the negatives about a situation or event, focus on the positives. By training your brain to focus on the positives, you'll naturally have a more optimistic perspective on life, which may lead to a lower risk of heart disease and death.

This study was published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.