Looking on the bright side of life can help people survive health threats, research suggests.
A study of people with 2,400 people with angina – a heart problem that causes severe chest pain – found those with an optimistic outlook were 30 per cent less likely to require hospital treatment over nearly two years of monitoring.
Scientists are increasingly interested in the impact someone’s attitude and outlook can have on their health.
For decades medical research has focused on physical symptoms and developing drugs and procedures to deal with them.
But a growing body of evidence suggests that mood, which has largely been ignored by doctors, could have a major impact on a patient’s chance of recovery.
A study of people with 2,400 people with angina – a heart problem that causes severe chest pain – found those with an optimistic outlook were 30 per cent less likely to require hospital treatment over nearly two years of monitoring
The researchers, from Duke University in North Carolina and Columbia University in New York, asked the patients after one month, six months and 12 months how optimistic they were about the future.
Levels of optimism stayed roughly the same at each interview – with a quarter ‘most optimistic’, about two fifths ‘optimistic’, a fifth neutral and a tenth not optimistic.
The researchers found for every degree of optimism, the chances of being taken into hospital within the two-year study period dropped.
Those who were the most optimistic were about 40 per cent less likely than those who were not optimistic to require hospital.
The researchers said this was partly because the optimistic people had better health to start with.
But even when they adjusted their results to take this into account, they found there was still a 30 per cent gap between the most optimistic and the least.
Study leader Dr Alexander Fanaroff of Duke University Medical Centre said: ‘Feeling better about your disease process and ability to reengage in usual activities may actually make chronic angina easier to deal with.
‘Our findings suggest that if we can identify patients who are less optimistic for whatever reason-whether it’s because their disease has made them despair for the future, they have uncertainty about their diagnosis, or they have multiple comorbidities-and help them feel more hopeful by focusing on what they can do, we may be able to positively affect outcomes.’
Other studies published in the last two years have found similar results for cancer, stroke, respiratory disease and infection.
Scientists suspect this may be because someone’s general mood alters the levels of harmful and beneficial hormones in their body.
Being optimistic, for example, reduces stress and anxiety hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which can place a burden on the heart and raise blood pressure.
Studies have also found people who are less stressed have lower cholesterol levels, are less prone to inflammation, have a better immune response and higher levels of antioxidants in the blood.
People who are less optimistic and more stressed are also more likely to smoke and drink to unhealthy levels.
But Dr Fanaroff, who will present his findings at the American College of Cardiology conference in Orlando later this month, has a more simple explanation.
He believes people worried about their health do less exercise because they are overly concerned about the danger.
‘People will often cut back on or stop activities they like to do-tennis, playing with grandchildren, job-related tasks-either because of the pain itself or because they worry that the activity prompting the pain is dangerous to their heart,’ he said.
Dr Fanaroff believes reassuring patients and helping them become more confident could have major benefits.
‘As a clinician, it doesn’t cost anything to help patients with chronic angina focus on what they can do, letting them know that there are medications and procedures that can help them return to a normal life and continue to do the things they like to do,’ he said.
‘Bottom line – there’s reason to be optimistic for patients with chronic angina, and it’s important that clinicians relay that to them.’