A new research reveals that you cannot separate your health from your emotions and numerous studies support the idea that having an optimistic and positive attitude can translate in- to living a longer and healthier life. For example， in one older study，pessimism (悲观) was linked to a 19 percent higher risk of dying over a 30-year period.
After examining the associations between optimism and heart health in more than 5, 100 adults of various ethnic groups for 11 years, researchers at the University of Illinois report that people who display a more optimistic can-do attitude in life experience significantly better cardiovascular (心血管) health over the long term.
People who were the most optimistic were up to 76 percent more likely to have a total health score in the ideal range. The health scores were based on seven aspects used by the American Heart Association (AHA) to define heart health. This includes blood pressure, body mass index, fasting blood sugar, serum cholesterol levels, diet, exercise and smoking. According to study author Rosalba Hernandez, "Individuals with the highest levels of optim- ism have twice the chances of being in ideal cardiovascular health compared to their more pes- simistic peers. This association remains significant, even after adjusting for social population characteristics and poor mental health. At the population level, even this slight difference in cardiovascular health translates into a significant reduction in death rates.
This evidence, which is assumed to occur through a bio-behavioral mechanism, suggests that prevention strategies that target modification of psychological well-being—e. g. optim—ism—may be a potential avenue for AHA to reach its goal of improving Americans' cardiovascular health by 20 percent before 2020."
