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Subscribe to RSSIf you’re happy and you know it, maybe you really should clap your hands. That’s because being happy might make you live longer.
In a study published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from University College, London found that happy people reduced their risk of premature death by as much 35 percent.
Unlike other “happiness” studies that rely on a participant’s long-term recall of emotional states, the researchers used a technique called Ecological Momentary Assessment, which gives a quick picture of what a person is feeling in real time.
In this study, the nearly 4,000 participants, ages 52 to 79, were asked to rate their feelings of happiness or anxiety on a sliding scale four times over the course of one day, beginning when they woke up in the morning. The scientists then followed them for five years, recording the number of deaths during that time.
After controlling for age, gender, depression, certain diseases like cancer or diabetes, and health-related behaviors like smoking, study results showed that those folks who rated their feelings of happiness higher lived longer than those with lower scores.
“I was a bit surprised that the happiness effect was so strong, even among people who had chronic diseases,” says lead author Andrew Steptoe, professor of epidemiology and psychology.
The authors are quick to point out although the study was designed to look at correlations, not cause-and-effect relationships, it highlights the importance of a positive outlook on life. “Older people have needs that we in society try to supply like good healthcare and ensuring they have enough money to live on,” says Steptoe. “But maybe we should pay attention to their well being in terms of happiness, too.”
Other researchers who study that sometimes elusive state of well being known as happiness say the study is significant. “I hope they continue to follow this group out to 10 years and 15 years,” says Stephen Post, professor of preventive medicine at Stony Brook University, since he believes the mortality gap between the happy and the sad may become even bigger.
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This is wonderful news! I'm always happy; any day above ground is a good day.
Just being born is like winning the lottery. Planet Earth is such a beautiful blue marble spinning in space and all the life on it is so spectacular. I'm going to miss it when I'm gone, but in the meantime I find joy in almost everything.
"If you're happy and you know it, maybe you really should clap your hands. That's because being happy might make you live longer".
I doubt Americans wanna clap their hands right now, matter of fact i'd guess they wanna slap the sh*t outta somebody....especially the politicians in Washington and the illegal Aliens...those two for being in the news too much lately....
Some people seem to feel determined to make every issue an issue on illegal immigration. "To the man with a hammer, every problem is a nail".
"Be happy"
Easier said than done these days.
Well it is a good thing surely that all of those tea bagging republicans are filled which such spite and distain for others. ; [] ; ].
Yet I digress as I jest of course. But really though. lols.
Cheers.
I don't know about that, the libtards do a great job keeping their moods gloomy with all their 'white guilt' and feeling like they're being 'oppressed.'
Go have another Prozac. :)
Goodness, I read that article through twice and did not find a definition of "happiness." What makes me happy, I am sure would meet, at least, indifference in someone else.
Is Contentment happiness? (sensitive to the balances between disappointments being outnumbered by good feelings about things)
Is Argumentation happiness? (I don't mean fighting, I mean in the classic sense: exchanging ideas and logic with others, even problem-solving in the more abstract way).
Is Money happiness? (enough to live well if not luxuriously)
Is Achievement happiness? (exploring, defining, one's own capabilities and using them successfully)
There is a long list that varies with each human being. Still, perhaps over all, defining "happiness" as those scholars tried to, might only be in our outlook on life... at any age... is our glass of nourishment half empty? or half full?
yeah, i agree. being ugly makes me happy.
it shortcut all the wish to be sexy and cut
the chase to be one, so ugliness actually
simplify my desire to comfit with other
super ugly.
yeah, i agree. being ugly makes me happy.
it shortcut all the wish to be sexy and cut
the chase to be one, so ugliness actually
simplify my desire to comfit with other
super ugly.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22
Quoting fairy tales always cheers me up! Patty cake patty cake.
People at work hate me because I'm happy. I'm psychotropic drug free (I have diabetes II) but I'm a naturally happy person. People ask me how I am and I say "Ornery". Maybe that's what makes me happy?
There are people who never live imho. I have traveled and done my bucket list. I also had a house built from the ground up with my own floor plan before i was 40 not bad i can rest anytime now.
I just hope i go with out pain and suffering and without being a burden to anyone.
Wow! You've got it all figured out. I don't have a clue or a bucket list and I'm happy.
I guess the Patridge Family had it right...c'mon get happy
Apparently stress and anxiety reduce lifespan......who woulda' thought.....
Married men live longer than single men, but are more willing to die!
For married men it just seems longer.
This article could only come from a place like England. In America, being happy is frowned upon and will not be taken seriously. I would rather die rich and lonely, than happy and homeless.
boy you got that exactly reversed. You need to get out more....
the causal story seems a bit iffy.
maybe all you have to do is want to live longer, and those who are in a positive mood, simply want to live longer.
in this case, what's stopping folks who are in a negative mood from living longer is simply the desire to not live longer.
Yea, get happy by going to a "happy" movie like Puss N Boots. Enjoy the LOUD previews that destroy every cilia in your ear and then enjoy the LOUD movie with violence, too much in-your-face stimulation, constant action,and adult humor but hey...it's for all ages. I am 69 and I had to plug my ears it was all so loud. Yes, go to a happy movie and it will make you happy. Then watch parents as they discipline unders 2's for not being able to "enjoy" the movie. If I could live out in nature and have few humans around me, i would be happy. I know it, but I can't have it. I'm sick of stupid people.
Yes, well, then there are the others who just suck out every bit of oxygen in the room and whining endlessly about the most mundane of things, no matter how insignificant. Yeah, hard to get happy around that.
Happiness is a state of mind. We tend to take life too seriously and there is really no need because we are going to die in the end. Wars, elections, sports games, marriages, wins and losses will soon be forgotten, enjoy the day, tomorrow may be worse.
Is there a pill for that?
There is a great drug for this. It cures all your ails, makes you happy, helps with all your problems. makes you feel better than you ever have before and it only has one side effect........It wears off Haha
Get happy? Kindly pee up a rope and die.
Happiness is a warm gun.
Great , become an old , stinky , Depends wearing , baby food eating , wrinkly , happy old person !!WooooPeeee!!
Happiness would include accepting people for who they are and not sweating the irrelevent stuff. As for seniors it would include mobility into the outside world, friendships, ability to participate in society etc.
Happiness comes in small, fleeting moments. Nobody is happy all the time. If they are, they're liars.
Happyness is temperal but Joy is internal. Happyness fades, Joy endures. Happy comes from the Swedish word HAPP-meaning momentary feelings of bliss. Joy is deeper and springs eternal contentment.
Getting happy makes me feel young. So mindfully I work towards a smile and happiness as soon as the blues start coming on. Sometimes I'll listen to a song about happiness and it acts like a bell to remind me that being happy again is possible, and likely not too far away if I want it. Here's a happy cowboy song I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZ0IFyBNsc
When I was a child I thought twenty year old people were very mature. When I was twenty I still felt like a kid but thought that maybe I would feel mature by thirty. Then I married and started raising my children, and thinking, this will surely grow me up. Now I am seventy two and still having fun. It's beginning to look like I'll be dead before I ever get serious.
I like this part
After controlling for age, gender, depression, certain diseases like cancer or diabetes, and health-related behaviors like smoking, study results showed that those folks who rated their feelings of happiness higher lived longer than those with lower scores.
I am the oldest living male in my family right now. All the rest died from Heart disease. No one in my family has died from anything else...I can have happiness up my you know what, I am still not going to live long LOL
Perk up ed, a tree might fall on you before your heart gives out.
Most all my ancestors died of strokes, had one myself about ten years ago, paralyzed my left side, thought I was a goner for sure. I went to work the following day, couldn't walk or use my left hand but my mind still worked. I wore the stroke off in about six months, of course I may be dead before morning.
The secret is don't lay down before you're dead.
I have always felt - and i guess for this i am extremely blessed - that it is totally AMAZING that WE are even HERE. That we get to interact, we get to experience, we get to create, we get to be witness to so much beauty, etc... We Exist... and as long as I have existed, I have felt a deep responsibility and desire to ENJOY LIFE and emit POSITIVE VIBES...Peace! www.ElevateTheVibe.com
If you really want to live longer and no pain, avoid MRI contrasts, GADOLINIUM, metal injected for the magnets in the scanners, say NO to this injection, it's not needed. Search it, it's painful, causes latent sx, meaning last exp to MRI "dye" could be months ago, but now you have difficulty walking, balance, muscle aches, hair loss and told you are nuts and have fibromyalgias, depression, and allergies. Check you med records and search side effects of GADOLINIUM. It has trade names, big players are making money off you, so are the docs, there is no cure if you have this and it can occur with normal renal functions. The docs are lying about this. Lifeline to your bank account. It's currently happening to me with the skin symptoms, but the R arm pains, knife like pain, as it gets in your bones, You will be happy when you see the look on the MD's face when you FIRE them.
They can do non contrasted MRI and CT scans, they use radioactive iodine. get your thyroid checked.
No reason for gadolinium to be used except money, your's to them. They think you won't find out. I DID. I'm mad, too. I told them I would find out. medical school in Colorado, Denver...va, too.
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