Positive attitudes lead to well being


Larry R. Miller
For the Headlight

Did You Know: a positive attitude can lower stress, depression and high blood pressure?

Modern medicine has long disconnected the brain from the body and treated health problems in one area as separate from the whole.  New research is finding if you’re a positive type person who looks on the brighter side of life, it can effect both your physical and mental health.

Scientists from Harvard and Boston University analyzed the personality style of 1,306 men and then tracked the health of these men over a 10 year period. At the end of the 10 year period, the pessimistic men were twice as likely to be depressed and develop heart disease.  The optimistic men were much healthier overall than the pessimistic men.

A study conducted by researchers in Finland found that over a four-year period, men with a pessimistic disposition were three times more likely to develop hypertension and high blood pressure than their positive peers.

Columnist Larry R. Miller

A positive attitude balances your blood sugar. A 2015 study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois found that optimists had significantly healthier blood sugar levels than pessimists.

It lowers your body mass index. The same 2015 University of Illinois study also found that people with positive outlooks had a lower body mass index than people with a gloomier view of life.

A positive attitude boosts your immune system response. Your immune response is connected to your feelings of well being.  Your feelings of well being is connected to your levels of stress.  Researchers in a 2006 study examined the personality traits of 193 volunteers and then exposed them to a common respiratory virus. The people with a positive personality style were less likely to develop symptoms of the virus than their negative peers.

A boost in immune system response improves your recovery time. A 2015 study found that optimistic people were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital after a heart attack.  Optimistic people recover faster and more completely than pessimistic people.Whether you’re recovering from a minor surgery, a heart attack or cancer, optimism has been shown to help you heal.

An optimistic outlook has also been proven to help you live longer. A recent study from the University of Oxford found that optimism decreases your risk of dying.  Pessimists had an 18 percent higher risk of dying from any cause over a four-year period.

How can you teach yourself to be more optimistic? Here are some simple techniques:

Cultivate friendships with positive people. Optimism is contagious.
Find a positive phrase, a healing mantra that works for you and make reciting it a habit.
Avoid dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Stay in the present.
Look for the good in every experience even the ones that seem really bad.
Keep a daily gratitude journal and write down all of the positive things in your life.
Focus on the things you can change for the better in your life, be proactive about changing them and remove what you can’t change from your life and thoughts.

Some of the popular information about optimism says that you should learn to accept the things you can’t change.  You always have options.  Learning to accept something that doesn’t work for you is like voting for the less of two evils, you still end up with an evil.

Larry R. Miller has been a freelance writer on health since 1982.