Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Positive Feelings May Help Protect Cardiovascular Health

Picture credit: i.huffpost.com
Over the last few decades numerous studies have shown negative states, such as depression, anger, anxiety, and hostility, to be detrimental to cardiovascular health. Less is known about how positive psychological characteristics are related to heart health.

In the first and largest systematic review on this topic to date, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that positive psychological well-being appears to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events.

The American Heart Association reports more than 2,200 Americans die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) each day, an average of one death every 39 seconds. Stroke accounts for about one of every 18 U.S. deaths.

The absence of the negative is not the same thing as the presence of the positive.

We found that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness are associated with reduced risk of CVD regardless of such factors as a person’s age, socioeconomic status, smoking status, or body weight,” said lead author Julia Boehm, research fellow in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at HSPH.

“For example, the most optimistic individuals had an approximately 50% reduced risk of experiencing an initial cardiovascular event compared to their less optimistic peers,” she said.

Satisfaction, Optimism, and Happiness

In a review of more than 200 studies published in two major scientific databases, Boehm and senior author Laura Kubzansky, associate professor of society, human development, and health at HSPH, found there are psychological assets, like optimism and positive emotion, that afford protection against cardiovascular disease. It also appears that these factors slow the progression of disease.

To further understand how psychological well-being and CVD might be related, Boehm and Kubzansky also investigated well-being’s association with cardiovascular-related health behaviors and biological markers. They found that individuals with a sense of well-being engaged in healthier behaviors such as exercising, eating a balanced diet, and getting sufficient sleep. In addition, greater well-being was related to better biological function, such as lower blood pressure, healthier lipid (blood fat) profiles, and normal body weight.

If future research continues to indicate that higher levels of satisfaction, optimism, and happiness come before cardiovascular health, this has strong implications for the design of prevention and intervention strategies.

“These findings suggest that an emphasis on bolstering psychological strengths rather than simply mitigating psychological deficits may improve cardiovascular health,” Kuzbansky said.

Acknowledgement by the Zestzfulness Team
The above story is reprinted from the April 17, 2012 news release by the Harvard School of Public Health. The research finding was published online on the same day the journal of the American Psychological Association: Boehm JK, Kubzansky LD. The Heart’s Content: The Association between Positive Psychological Well-Being and Cardiovascular Health. Psychological Bulletin, online April 17, 2012.

Key Findings:

Evidence indicates that Positive psychological well-being (PPWB) and CVD are associated, independent of typical factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, smoking, body mass index, cholesterol) and negative psychological states, and based on studies of both patients and healthy populations.

PPWB appears to protect against both the incidence of CVD and, to a lesser extent, the progression of the disease.

Optimism seems to be the “most robust” measure of PPWB associated with reducing risks of CVD.

The mechanisms that link PPWB and CVD seem to include direct, biological pathways; indirect, behavioral pathways; restorative processes, such as sleep and antioxidants; and deteriorative processes, such as inflammation and smoking.

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