Women who are optimistic have a lower risk of heart disease and death, an American study shows.
The latest study by US investigators mirrors the findings of earlier work by a Dutch team showing optimism reduces heart risk in men.
The research on nearly 100,000 women, published in the journal Circulation, found pessimists had higher blood pressure and cholesterol.
Even taking these risk factors into account, attitude alone altered risks.
Optimistic women had a 9% lower risk of developing heart disease and a 14% lower risk of dying from any cause after more than eight years of follow-up.
In comparison, cynical women who harboured hostile thoughts about others or were generally mistrusting of others were 16% more likely to die over the same time scale.
One possibility is that optimists are better at coping with adversity, and may, for example take better care of themselves when they do fall ill.
In the study, the optimistic women exercised more and were leaner than pessimistic peers.
Lead researcher Dr Hilary Tindle, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said: "The majority of evidence suggests that sustained, high degrees of negativity are hazardous to health."
A spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation said: "We know that hostile emotions can release certain chemicals in the body which may increase the risk of heart disease, but we don't fully understand how and why.
"Optimistic or hostile attitudes can be linked to health behaviours such as smoking or poor diet, which may also influence heart health.
"A good thing for all women is that regardless of your outlook, making healthy choices such as not smoking and eating well, will have much more of an impact on your heart health than your outlook.
"More research is needed to explore how and why these psychological attitudes may affect health."
在美國(guó)的一項(xiàng)研究表明,樂觀的女性患心臟疾病導(dǎo)致死亡的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)稍低。
美國(guó)的最新調(diào)查迎合了以前有荷蘭隊(duì)提出的樂觀能玩就心臟病的人的觀點(diǎn)。
雜志所述,在對(duì)100,000位婦女的研究,其中患高血壓或膽固醇高的人高發(fā)在悲觀主義的人身上。
對(duì)這些風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的重視程度決定著風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的發(fā)作
樂觀的婦女有9%的優(yōu)勢(shì)避免心臟病的侵襲,而在患病后的8年里死亡的機(jī)率占到了14%.
相比之下,多疑的那些婦女,經(jīng)常隱藏對(duì)別人的敵意,16%的人更容易在相同的時(shí)間內(nèi)死亡。
另一個(gè)可能性是樂觀主義者能夠更正確的應(yīng)付逆境,例如,當(dāng)他們自己生病是他能夠照顧自己。
研究表明,樂觀的女性鍛煉得多,而且比悲觀的人瘦的多。
匹斯堡大學(xué)藥學(xué)專業(yè)的助理教授,主要研究員Hilary Tindle博士說(shuō):"多數(shù)的實(shí)踐證明持續(xù)高度的消極狀態(tài)會(huì)加大死亡的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。"
英國(guó)心臟基金會(huì)的一位女性發(fā)言人說(shuō):"我們知道懷有敵意的情緒能夠釋放身體內(nèi)的某些化學(xué)物質(zhì)這樣會(huì)加大心臟疾病的危險(xiǎn),但是我們還不能完全的清楚為什么"
樂觀或者敵對(duì)情緒也能與健康的情緒有聯(lián)系,例如吸煙與不健康的飲食也會(huì)影響心臟的健康。
對(duì)所有的女性來(lái)說(shuō),不顧及前景怎樣,做健康的選擇,例如不吸煙,吃得好點(diǎn),這些對(duì)你的心臟健康的的影響生于你的前途
為什么會(huì)有這樣的心理需要更多的研究。