Optimistic women 'live longer'
Author: Simon Macsis
Category: Health
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Women who have an optimistic outlook on life may have something else to smile about following the publication of the latest statistics.
A study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association shows that optimistic females have a smaller chance of developing many life-threatening conditions, such as heart disease.
In addition, the overall risk of death is reduced in these women, according to the experts, who studied almost 100,000 women before drawing the conclusions.
The specialists, led by the facility's assistant professor of medicine Hilary Tindle, found that women who harbour negative thoughts towards other people also had an increased risk of death, though their chance of contracting heart disease did not rise.
"As a physician, I'd like to see people try to reduce their negativity in general. The majority of evidence suggests that sustained, high degrees of negativity are hazardous to health," Dr Tindle stated.
The expert added that individual health insurance holders should aim to brighten their outlook on life in order to increase the chances of it being a longer one.
In one of the largest studies of its kind ever conducted, the experts measured the attitudes of both black and white women who had experienced the menopause.
They concluded that optimistic women, compared to pessimistic women, had a nine per cent lower risk of developing heart disease and a 14 per cent less chance of dying from any cause after more than eight years of follow-up consultations.
The findings follow recent studies carried out at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where specialists found that periods of depression are likely to lead to dementia if the person already suffers from memory problems.
According to the Pittsburgh team, the results of the new study may also be pertinent to men with affordable medical insurance, as previous studies have produced similar outcomes.
"Prior to our work, the strongest evidence linking optimism and all-cause mortality was from a Dutch cohort, showing a more pronounced association in men," Dr Tindle stated.
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Keywords: individual health insurance, affordable medical insurance
View Count: 293
Date Submitted: 8/25/2009
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