Having a Bad Attitude Can Hurt Your Heart

In one of the largest studies on the impact of personality on health, it was found that attitude really does make a difference. Not only does optimism have a positive impact on heart health, pessimism has a negative impact on it. Women who were the most hostile and cynical were more likely to die than those who had the cheeriest dispositions. The study included 162,000 post-menopausal women and was conducted over a 15-year period. Women who were most optimistic had a nine percent lower risk of developing heart disease and a fourteen percent lower risk of dying of any cause than those who were least optimistic. Among the pessimistic women, they had a sixteen percent higher risk of death than those women who scored lowest for hostility and cynicism. People who have negative attitudes tend to make poorer health choices than positive thinkers. But don’t despair if you see the glass as half empty! You can learn how to think more positively. A study at Duke University found that heart patients who attended a workshop that taught them coping skills for dealing with hostility and anger had lower blood pressure and less depression than those who didn’t. Changing your attitude can change your health and may even save your life!