An
American study has shown that being hopeful about future events might help you
stay healthy and live longer. The study found links between people's beliefs
and their risks of cancer-related death, heart disease and early death.
Researchers studied one hundred thousand women during an eight-year period,
beginning in nineteen ninety-four. All of the women were fifty years of age or
older. The study was part of the Women's Health Initiative, a continuing study
organized by the National Institutes of Health. The findings were presented
earlier this month at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.
For the study, the women were asked questions that measured their beliefs or
ideas about the future. The researchers attempted to identify each woman's
personality eight years after gathering the information.
The study found that the hopeful individuals were fourteen percent less likely
than other women to have died from any cause. The hopeful women were also
thirty percent less likely to have died from heart disease after the eight
years.
Hilary Trindle was the lead writer of the report. She is an assistant professor
of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. She says the study
confirms earlier research that also linked optimistic feelings to longer life.
However, this study is different from earlier research on the subject.
Women with hypertension can damage blood vessels, causing heart attacks, strokes, dementia and kidney disease
The researchers also gathered information about people's education, financial
earnings, physical activity and use of alcoholic drinks or cigarettes.
Independent of those things, the findings still showed that optimists had less
of a chance of dying during the eight-year period.
Some women who answered the study's questions were found to be cynically
hostile, or highly untrusting of others. These women were sixteen percent more
likely to die than the others. They also were twenty-three percent more likely
to die of cancer.
The study also found that women who were not optimistic were more likely to
smoke, have high blood pressure or diabetes. They were also more likely not to
exercise.
Professor Tindle says the study did not confirm whether optimism leads to
healthier choices, or if it actually affected a person's physical health. She
says the study does not prove that negative emotions or distrust lead to bad
health effects, and shorter life. Yet there does appear to be a link between
the two. More research is needed to discover the exact reasons for the
findings.
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