Is brooding hurting your heart? In any case, it would seem that thinking positive keeps him in good shape, according to a study published in the journal Health Behavior and Policy Review.
Rosalba Hernandez, a researcher at the University of Illinois (USA) looked into the possible correlation between heart health and psychological well-being. Heart health as well as other indicators such as blood pressure, cholesterol, lifestyle and mental health (including level of optimism) were assessed on a panel of 5,100 adults, aged 45 to 84. year.
The results confirm the benefits of an optimistic attitude on heart fitness. “People who are the most optimistic are twice as likely to have ideal cardiovascular health, compared to their more pessimistic counterparts,” summarizes the author of the study. This publication is the first to associate heart health and optimism on such a large sample of the population, regardless of ethnic or social criteria. The study included white, Latino, African American and Chinese participants.
A not new association
Another lesson, not surprisingly, is that the most optimistic people were also those who exercised the most and smoked the least, suggesting a strong link between healthy lifestyle and mental well-being.
These conclusions follow those of Harvard work which had established in 2012 thatbeing happy would lower the risk of cardiovascular diseaseand heart attack. These same researchers had put the cover back in 2013 by affirming that optimism was synonymous with lower cholesterol levelas well as a lower level of triglycerides (lipids, which in excess increase the risk of cardiovascular disease).
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