HHS HealthBeat (January 19, 2007)

Happy and healthy

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

You might be happy you’re avoiding a cold, and you might be avoiding a cold because you’re happy. One researcher says people with more positive emotions tend to be sick less.

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University looked into that. Their study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The scientists interviewed volunteers over several weeks to check out their usual mood state, and then infected the volunteers with a cold or a flu virus. The volunteers stayed in isolation while researchers saw who got symptoms that looked like a cold.

Carnegie Mellon’s Sheldon Cohen:

"The higher people are in positive emotional style – the more positive emotions they reported over the three-week period – the less likely they are to develop a cold when we exposed them to a virus." (11 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: January, 19 2007