Looking
on the bright side is more than a tool for taking life’s ups and downs in
stride. An optimistic outlook is also good for your health, according to new research.
“Thought
patterns and mindsets are the most intimate parts of our experience,” said Dr.
Alan Rozanski, lead author of a meta-analysis on optimism
that was published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. "We have known
for a few decades now that there's a relationship between psychological factors
and heart disease.”
The new
meta-analysis, which examined 15 studies on optimism and health and utilized
data from 229,391 individuals, found that a person’s tendency to think
positively about the future was linked with a 35% lower risk for heart disease,
and a lower risk of death.
But
rote directives to “be more optimistic” seem unlikely to shift the worldviews
of hardened pessimists.
Instead,
Rozanski, who is also a cardiologist at Mount Sinai St. Luke's in New York,
thinks a better application of the new optimism research might be to offer
pessimism treatment as part of cardiac rehab programs.
People
who have recently had heart attacks are eager to live healthier lives and are
already making lifestyle changes, like improving their diets and exercising
more, explained Rozanski, who has experience working with heart attack patients
in such programs.
And
while pessimism treatment is a novel idea, Rozanski thinks mental health should
be part of post-heart attack regimens in the future.
“Thinking
of this as a medical issue is new,” he said.
More
broadly, he thinks pessimism should
raise concerns for doctors who might already be screening for more serious
mental health conditions, like depression.
While
depression itself carries numerous health burdens and complications, including
weight gain, heart disease, substance use disorders and risk for
suicide, according to the Mayo Clinic,
Rozanski stressed that we have clear approaches for treating depression.
“Just
like we can treat depression, we can treat [pessimism] at an earlier stage,” he
said.
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