People who are typically happy and enthusiastic are less likely to develop heart disease than those of a gloomier disposition, researchers say.
An increased risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke has previously been linked to getting angry or stressed, but a study by American researchers, published in the European Heart Journal, claims to be the first to show an independent link between emotions and coronary heart disease.
The findings suggest that it may be possible to help to prevent heart disease by boosting a person’s mood, says the lead researcher, Karina Davidson, of Columbia University, New York.
“Everyone should try and inject some fun into their daily routines to counteract any effects of stress on their health, rather than waiting for holidays,” she said. “Some people wait for their two weeks of vacation to have fun, and that would be analogous to binge drinking.
"Essentially, spending some few minutes each day truly relaxed and enjoying yourself is certainly good for your mental health, and may improve your physical health as well.”
Over ten years Dr Davidson and colleagues tracked the health of 1,739 adults who participated in a 1995 health survey in Nova Scotia, Canada.Nurses assessed participants’ risk of heart disease and measured symptoms of depression, hostility, anxiety and their degree of positive emotions, referred to as “positive affect”.
Writing in the European Heart Journal, the researchers define positive affect as the experience of pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment. Although these feelings can be transitory or short-lived, they can also represent stable character traits, particularly in adulthood, they add.
The study pParticipants were awarded a score out of five for positive affect, varying from “none” to “extreme” depending on their answers to questions on how they responded to stressful situations or expressed their emotions.
After taking account of age, sex and cardiovascular risk factors, the researchers found that, over the ten-year period, people with increased scores for positive affect were less likely to suffer a fatal or non-fatal heart attack or stroke.
“Participants with no positive affect were at a 22 per cent higher risk of heart disease than those with a little positive affect, who were themselves at 22 per cent higher risk than those with moderate positive affect,” Dr Davidson said. “We also found that if someone who was usually positive had some depressive symptoms at the time of the survey, this did not affect their overall lower risk of heart disease.
She suggested there could be several possible explanations for the link, including typically happy people having longer periods of rest or relaxation, or being able to recover more quickly from stress or anxiety.
They may also not spend as much time “re-living” or dwelling on depressing events, “which in turn seems to cause physiological damage,” she added.
Dr Davidson said that to improve mood and relaxation, people should devote time daily to a hobby or preferred leisure pursuit.
“If you enjoy reading novels, but never get around to it, commit to getting 15 minutes or so of reading in. If walking or listening to music improves your mood, get those activities in your schedule.
She added that more studies were needed to confirm the link between mood and physical health: “We desperately need rigorous clinical trials in this area.”
“If the trials support our findings, then these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and patients could do to improve health.”
Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said that the charity was funding ongoing research to “unravel the biology” that underlies the link between happiness and health. But she warned that existing risk factors such as obesity, poor diet, lack of exercise or smoking should not be discounted.
“Today’s study used an experimental design that is great for observing trends and associations, but doesn’t prove cause and effect or tell us for sure whether changing our mood can definitely reduce our risk of heart disease,” she added.
“This research suggested that those who naturally had a ‘glass half-full’ mood seemed to be most protected from disease. But we’re not all like that, and we know that improving your mood isn’t always easy – so we don’t know if it’s possible to change our natural levels of positivity.
“We would of course recommend that people take time to indulge in healthy activities that can lift their mood, but trying to keep established risk factors under control remains really important.”
Source: The Times
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