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We're always on the lookout for anti-aging news at Good Housekeeping, so I was intrigued
when I came across the book Up: How
Positive Outlook Can Transform our Health and Aging
, by Hilary Tindle, M.D., M.P.H. I recently had a chance to chat with Dr.
Tindle about her research:

Marnie: What are some
of the major ways our outlook on life can impact our health?

Dr. Tindle: The biggest is through cardiovascular disease,
which is important because it's the number one killer of Americans and is almost
entirely preventable. If a person in her 20s or 30s has a hostile outlook, she'll
be more likely to develop high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for
heart disease. Post-menopausal women who don't expect good things to happen are
more likely to have a first heart attack and to die than more optimistic women.
Negativity has a very clear association with poor health, but the opposite
seems to also be true-positive people tend to have much better health.

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Marnie: How much
control do we have over our outlook? Aren't some people just pessimists or
optimists by nature?

Dr. Tindle: Research shows us that about 25% to 50% of
outlook is genetic, which means that the rest probably comes from day to day
experiences we have growing up. And a large portion of our outlook is formed by
the time we're 20 to 30 years old. If you follow a group of optimists in their 30s
or 40s, most will tend to stay optimistic over the next 20 years. But that doesn't
mean we can't change our outlook. I see it every day in clinics and at the
hospital, like when I help someone quit smoking. There's a mental shift that

Marnie: How does a person
go about improving her outlook?

Dr. Tindle: First, find out where you fall on the
optimism/pessimism scale. You can use an online questionnaire but most people
have a good idea where they stand. Then, form an intention to change. The third
step is listening to your own inner conversation-that constant stream of thoughts
and feelings we all have. When we take inventory, we start to realize how
negative some of those thoughts are. The next step is challenging those
thoughts, learning to say maybe I will be
successful this time
. Lastly, consider some mind body techniques like cognitive
behavioral therapy. Remember, research shows that even small shifts in outlook
are associated with big changes in health risks. This isn't a personality

Marnie: You write
about the difference between a healthspan-how long you're living healthily-and
a lifespan. How does optimism extend our healthspan?

Dr. Tindle: Healthspan describes the healthiness, the quality
of a person's life. Can they run after a grandchild, go to concerts in the park
in the summer, take a train to visit relatives? When we expand our healthspan,
we're living healthier, and optimism is very much associated with that. Optimists
have better health profiles-they're more likely to take care of themselves,
exercise, and maintain a healthy weight and less likely to smoke and have high
blood pressure or diabetes. All those things really affect aging on a
fundamental level.

What do you think?