HEART DISEASE
Optimism may make heart problems less likely.
THE QUESTION: Does a person's outlook on life - whether, for instance, they think good things or bad things will happen in the future - affect the health of his or her heart?
THIS STUDY: Analyzed data on 97,253 women, 50 to 79 years old, who did not have cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. In the next eight years, women with the most optimistic attitudes were 9 percent less likely to develop heart disease, 14 percent less likely to die prematurely from any cause and 30 percent less likely to die from heart disease than were women deemed to be the most pessimistic. Those rated as the most cynically hostile - meaning they generally distrusted people and had hostile thoughts about them - were 16 percent more likely to die during this time than were women who were the least cynical and hostile.
WHO MAY BE AFFECTED? Post-menopausal women. More women in the United States die each year from heart disease than from anything else, 1.6 times more than die from all types of cancer combined.
CAVEATS: Ratings of optimism, pessimism and cynical hostility were based on the women's responses to questions. Whether the findings apply to men was not determined.
LEARN MORE: About heart disease in women at www.womenshealth.gov and www.familydoctor.org (click "Women").