{"id":10927,"date":"2009-08-16T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2009-08-16T06:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=10927"},"modified":"2009-08-14T11:52:57","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T16:52:57","slug":"be-optimistic-its-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/08\/be-optimistic-its-healthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Optimistic – It’s Healthy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"smile\"<\/a>According to new research, being a pessimist may put you at risk of heart disease<\/a>, or even death! Conversely, keeping a positive outlook can help protect your heart.<\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t know exactly why, but attitude does appear to matter when it comes to heart disease and health,” says University of Pittsburgh Medical Center internist Hilary A. Tindle, MD, MPH.<\/p>\n

The study included 97,000 postmenopausal women, and none of them had heart disease prior to participation.<\/p>\n

Participants filled out surveys to determine their level of optimism or pessimism. And after eight years of follow-up, the researchers found that those women who scored highest for optimism had a nine percent lower risk of developing heart disease and a 14 percent lower risk of dying from any cause than those women who scored lowest for optimism.<\/p>\n

Conversely, the women who scored a high degree of hostility and cynicism were 16 percent more likely to die than women who scored lowest.<\/p>\n

The numbers were much more dramatic among African-American women. The optimistic women had a 33 percent lower risk for death than the pessimists. And African-American women who scored highest for hostility and cynicism were a whopping 62 percent more likely to die than those who scored the lowest.<\/p>\n

Pessimists were more likely to have diabetes<\/a>, be overweight, smoke, have high cholesterol, and avoid exercise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Someone who believes that life is not worth living probably isn\u2019t the type of person who goes to the gym three times a week,” says Psychologist and American Heart Association spokesman Barry J. Jacobs, PsyD.<\/p>\n

So, cheer up. Your life may depend on it.<\/p>\n

(via WebMD<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to new research, being a pessimist may put you at risk of heart disease, or even death! Conversely, keeping a positive outlook can help protect your heart. “We don\u2019t know exactly why, but attitude does appear to matter when … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[804],"tags":[427,31,37,503,383],"class_list":["post-10927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heart-disease","tag-depression","tag-health-news","tag-mental-health","tag-mood","tag-research-studies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10927"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10976,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927\/revisions\/10976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}