I've always had an optimistic mindset. It's nice to read that it likely will have a positive impact on my health and longevity! With Covid, we need all the help we can get!
The next time you get annoyed at something, stop for a moment and examine what’s going on in your body - faster heart rate, shallow breathing and feeling overwhelmed. When this happens to me, it feels like a dark poison is flooding my body - I can feel right away that this is not good for my body.
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Being optimistic in Trump America is quite impossible.
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@Xfarmer
unless you are on a psychotropic drug that suspends reality.
Genetics trump everything else
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Once again, this is a correlation, not causation. At best, it’s a suggestion for further research.
Also, according to the article: — “It seems optimists have better health behaviors,” said the lead author, Dr. Alan Rozanski, a professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “They’re more likely to exercise and to have better diet. And there is evidence of direct biological effects — they have less inflammation and fewer metabolic abnormalities.” —
There’s evidence that a healthier lifestyle, especially diet and exercise, can decrease the risk of depression. And perhaps pessimism as well. And people who feel better, and better about themselves, may be more optimistic.
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@Dr. J
And maybe people who are healthier are better able to exercise and care for themselves with a better diet.
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Do you want to know your chances are of being both a) a happy person, and b) having a healthy heart into middle and old age? Look at both your parents and both their parents! Were your dad and grandad good at coping with pressure, depression, sunny side of the street guys? Did they not get blocked arteries or arrthymias? Then you probably inherited those genes too. That is the baseline to the overly-obvious conclusion of the JAMA study.
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Interesting article to appear the day after my one-year anniversary of open heart surgery.
The findings display correlation, not causation, but now they can be explored in other studies to see if there is a causal relationship between mood and cardiovascular disease.
I can believe a causal relationship might be found, though, but that is based only on my own personal experience.
I fully expected to survive this operation and, in fact, started preparing for it 2-3 years in advance as a result of that optimism. I believe the steps I took in that time enhanced my chances of survival. That would be an example of a causal link.
I write a blog, mostly just for my wife and me, and posted an entry yesterday about my one year anniversary of this life-altering experience.
I have been blessed in my life with reasons to be optimistic about life.
http://livinginthebedofapickup.blogspot.com/
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I agree fully. Nothing works like optimism in life. A student can’t simply progress without optimism and so is the patient. A patient’s faith in the doctor cures the disease 50 %. So optimism matters everywhere.
Negative mindset takes us nowhere other than making us mentally sick, depressed and even isolated from the society.
It’s rather unfortunate that media sells on negativity. I am so sick and tired of this nonsense. The positive and beautiful things happening in the world are nowhere highlighted, so sad.
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@Sivaram Pochiraju
Other studies have shown that it is the pessimists that have views that correlate better with reality.
And it may be that over optimistic views of the future have helped view our refusal to do what is necessary to stave off global warming or address huge income disparities or even the willingness of so many to vote for a clearly incompetent person for president and think things may just turn out for the best.
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TL;DR...
Somewhere out there is a NY Times reader who has a spreadsheet of all the things they need to do squeeze every last possible year out of their lives.
But I’m here to tell you that genetics and the bad is going to wash away the good. And let’s say you manage to do everything right... for what? An extra 7 or so years at the very end?
I’m a pessimist. I know I will die and that when it comes all I will care about is what life was left on the table unclaimed... not much my friends, not much.
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If you are healthy it is easy to be optimistic so the correlation is the wrong way
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@Richard
Exactly. And as @boratsmith said above temperament is hardly a non-genetically influenced trait. If you're happy, and healthy already, it's that much easier to start, and continue, to exercise and eat well. If you have fewer obstacles to exercise to begin with, like life-long good cardiovascular capacity and no food intolerances, of course you'll be better off. I'm so tired of clinicians and most medical researchers (and I have worked with them for 20 years at Dartmouth) blaming peoples' choices for their poor health when in fact their poor health is often out of their hands by the time they are able to choose anything.
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It’s easier said than done and albeit it may be partially true that having an optimistic mindset on life may reduce cardiovascular disease , inflammation and so forth. I believe genetics can play a major role as well and other factors such as drinking, smoking and so forth that aren’t mention that should be studied all together more in depth so see what is the underlying reasoning. Yes we can remain positive and have too much of a positive lifestyle and you’re going off socially drinking and eating unhealthy. In addition it can vary by individual as well,
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Imagine a 2 year old abused and neglected their entire childhood.
Entering the school system and having to perform as society expects despite horrendous emotional and psychic pain they no not how to express.
Cortisol levels and Fight and Flight are always just under the surface.
Some damage is done to the entire array of organ systems beginning with the brain and adrenal glands.
A cascade of chemical. Yes it will effect longevity and heart health for sure. I think positive people may not necessarily be nice people. Hence !!why my extremely abusive ,ex con ,dad lived to age 97. He could care less as a narcissist and was always bland or content. And never apologized for his abuse. Ever. So yeah but for other reasons too.
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Whatever happens to each one of us, from our first breath - and earlier - contributes to how we feel about ourselves, and to what degree we trust the world. People don't choose to be "optimistic" or "pessimistic" - their genetic background and entire real life experience orients them to see the world in their own way.
I mainly worry about those who read the headline and conclude that this is some sort of triumph of will - - - and that people are responsible for their lack of optimism and thus for their heart disease.
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@cheryl
Maybe some do intentionally "choose" to be optimistic or pessimistic. We can train ourselves to respond to the world based on what we know to be healthy, not based on whatever happens to us. Counting one's blessings, not our difficulties affects how we approach each day. Anecdotal, but true for me. Am living with cancer, but glad to be alive each day.
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@Bob Your ability to change how you respond to the world is your blessing, not your skill. Not all of us are so lucky.
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It is common for people to eat a meal and afterward feel guilty about it. This recurring experience does not promote optimism. Some years ago, I began eating a plant-based, whole foods diet. After allowing time for adjustment, I now have a feeling that what I am eating is making me stronger. I feel more optimistic when I see great blood pressure readings and low bad cholesterol number in my medical checkups. For me, I'd much rather enjoy a bean burger than one of the highly processed meat substitute burgers being marketed. And please, don't drench my food in oils, another highly processed food!
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@Dave,
I eat the same way — after having been a vegetarian for about 45 years. And I totally agree about not eating processed food, which these fake meat products are. (Actually, all fake animal products are.). Give me real food — whole food.
And in addition to not drenching my food in oil, I would like to avoid so much — or all, if possible — added salt and sugar.
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This has been floating around for quite some time, but almost no studies differentiate between correlation and causation, nor does it get into the nitty-gritty of lifestyle factors, those that create premature death nor those that are correlates. There are so many factors that effect longevity and well-being, but they are rarely if ever compensated for in these studies, so much so there are people that ascribe to a simplistic philosophy of "believe and the mind will cure itself."
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