Optimism may protect against heart disease: study

January 1, 2002

NEW YORK, Dec 06 (Reuters Health) - People who blame themselves for bad

events and believe that things will never change are more likely to

develop heart disease than their more optimistic peers, study findings

suggest.

According to the report published in a recent issue of Psychosomatic

Medicine, people with a pessimistic explanatory style were more likely

to develop heart disease and die of a heart attack than those who

shrugged off bad news with a view that things were bound to improve. A

person's explanatory style refers to the way they understand the causes

of life's events.

The findings support the results of previous research linking pessimism

with higher levels of anger, anxiety and depression--emotions that may

be risk factors for heart disease.

" Because optimistic individuals actively engage in planning and problem

solving, they may experience fewer stressors, or they may have more

resources with which to deal with stress, " Dr. L. Kubzansky from Harvard

School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues

suggest.

They note that optimists tend to be more social, a quality that has been

linked with better health. These individuals may also be more likely to

adopt healthy behaviors such as exercising, drinking in moderation and

not smoking.

The results are based on information from more than 1,300 healthy, white

men aged 21 to 80 who were followed over an average of 10 years.

Researchers ranked study volunteers on their level of optimism using a

standardized scale.

There were few differences in lifestyle behaviors between optimists and

pessimists, although pessimists were more likely to consume more than

two drinks of alcohol a day and to have a lower level of education.

Overall, about 12% of the group developed heart disease over a decade,

of whom 19% died of a heart attack. Each increase in the level of

optimism on the scale was associated with a roughly 25% lower risk of

developing chest pain and heart disease, the study found. The most

optimistic men also had a lower risk of having a nonfatal heart attack

and dying from heart disease compared with the most pessimistic men.

" These results suggest that an optimistic explanatory style may protect

against risk of coronary heart disease in older men, " the study

concludes.

SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine 2001;63:910-916.

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