Optimists Live Longer, New Study Suggests
Varieties
London - Asharq Al-Awsat
People who have a rosy outlook on the world may live healthier, longer lives because they have fewer stressful events to cope with, new research suggests. According to The Guardian, scientists found that while optimists reacted to, and recovered from, stressful situations in much the same way as pessimists, the optimists fared better emotionally because they had fewer stressful events in their daily lives. How optimists minimize their dose of stress is unclear, but the researchers believe they either avoid arguments, traffic jams and other irritations, or simply fail to perceive them as stressful in the first place. Previous studies have found evidence that optimists live longer and healthier lives, but researchers do not fully understand why having a glass-half-full attitude might contribute to healthy ageing. “Given prior work linking optimism to longevity, healthy ageing, and lower risks of major diseases, it seemed like a logical next step to study whether optimism might protect against the effects of stress among older adults,” said Dr. Lewina Lee, a clinical psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System and assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University. Lee and her colleagues analyzed information provided by 233 men who were at least 21 years old when they enrolled in a US veterans affairs normative ageing study between 1961 and 1970. Surveys in the 1980s and 90s assessed the men’s levels of optimism. Between 2002 and 2010, they completed up to three eight-day-long diary entries that recorded their mood and any stressful situations they encountered. The researchers suspected that the optimists might bounce back more swiftly than pessimists and return to a good mood faster following a stressful event. But the data did not bear this out.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3520206/optimists-live-longer-new-study-suggests
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