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 The results don’t prove that optimism extends life, but doctors
should nevertheless consider including optimism training in
patients’ rehabilitation after heart attacks, the study team writes
in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
“It is important to note that optimism is not simply a rosy glow
over the world; in contrast, optimists are more likely to
acknowledge risks and plan how to cope with them,” senior author
Yariv Gerber said by email.
Optimists may be more likely to face challenges such as making the
lifestyle changes recommended after heart attacks, added Gerber, who
chairs the epidemiology and preventive medicine department in the
school of public health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel
Aviv University.
Optimists may also have less inflammation in their bodies, a
condition that can negatively affect heart health, he noted.
To examine the link between optimism and heart attack patients’
survival, researchers studied 664 people who were under age 65 in
1992 and 1993 when they had their first heart attacks.
The average age at the time of the heart attack was 52; 15 percent
were women. While they were in the hospital recovering, participants
completed a Life Orientation Test, which assessed their general
level of optimism or pessimism.
In 2015, researchers followed up to see who was still alive. They
found that 284 patients, or 43 percent had died.
After accounting for things like age, sex, education, employment,
smoking, as well as emotional factors like depression and social
support, the study team found that people who had scored in the
top-third for optimism right after that first heart attack were 33
percent less likely to have died in the intervening years than those
with scores in the bottom and middle thirds.
The most optimistic people were also more likely to be educated,
employed and to have social support, the study found, and optimists
were less likely to smoke or be depressed.
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An increasing number of scientific studies have shown a connection
between emotional wellbeing and physical health, said Heather
Rasmussen, a psychologist at the University of Kansas in Lawrence,
in email to Reuters Health.
Optimists may be more likely to have healthier behaviors and to seek
out positive social support from people in their lives, said
Rasmussen, who was not involved in the study.
“Other researchers have suggested that optimism and positive
emotions could even have effects on a person's biology,” Rasmussen
said. “All of these ideas have some research support - but we need
additional studies to further figure out these relationships.”
It may not be possible to turn someone into an optimist, as the
trait may be inherited or based on past experiences, Gerber noted.
However, even if people cannot learn to be optimistic, they can
learn ways of coping or behaving that optimists use.
“In other words, even if you cannot turn a person into an optimist,
you may be able to teach him/her to ‘behave’ like one,” Gerber said.
SOURCE: mayocl.in/2hmCihV Mayo Clinic Proceedings, online November
19, 2016.
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