Being happy could prevent a heart attack, study reveals
February 18, 2010
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
STAFF REPORTER
Weathering stress with a smile could rescue you from a heart attack, a 10-year examination of nearly 2,000 Canadians has found.
Or just adding 15 minutes of something to your day that you enjoy.
The adults who were “professionally judged to be happy” had 22 per cent less risk of a heart attack or angina, said Dr. Karina Davidson, the Vancouver-born Columbia University professor who led the research.
“This is the first study to show an independent relationship” between heart disease and a positive attitude that was spelled out through clear data, as opposed to just being based on a person’s own report of their attitude.
Davidson made it clear that a positive attitude doesn’t just mean a happy person. A person who undergoes depression from time to time can still be fundamentally a positive person, she said, and an optimist can become unravelled by stress.
“We also found that if someone, who was usually positive, had some depressive symptoms at the time of the survey, this did not affect their overall lower risk of heart disease,” she said.
“I was surprised” by the results, Davidson admitted. “I tend to be a cynic.”
The results, published in the European Heart Journal, still need clinical trials to verify the connection. “What we don’t know is whether changing one’s level of positive affect will change the risk of a heart attack.”
She speculated that people with a positive attitude may bounce back more quickly from stress, rather than stew over it, or may be better at relaxing.
“Some people wait for their two weeks of vacation to have fun, and that would be analogous to binge drinking. Spending some few minutes each day truly relaxed is good for your mental health and may improve your physical health.”
Studies have already established a clear link between positive attitude and better mental health. And behavioural work by psychologists have already begun to show that simple changes produce a dramatic effect.
“We know what makes us happy. We’re just too busy to do it,” said Davidson. “If going for a hike is the highlight of your week, that thing that you enjoy most has to stay in your schedule. It’s getting people to change their lives to include regular pleasurable activities.”
Elderly people report the most benefit from making sure they schedule time every day to do something that gives them pleasure, she said.
Davidson was part of the team that created the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey at Dalhousie University that involved 15-minute structured interviews with 1,739 people. Each was tested for their level of risk of cardiovascular disease and their responses were quantified to measure their level of positive attitude. Age, health risk and gender were also factored in to the measure.
Over the next 10 years, 129 of them suffered a heart attack, eight of which were fatal.
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