Study Discovers That Happiness Can Improve Heart Health

Exercise and a balanced diet are both good ways to take care of your heart. But now there’s another, much simpler way, too. At least, that’s what a new study published in the European Heart Journal found.

Researchers at Columbia University graded the happiness of approximately 1,700 Canadian adults with no history of heart problems in 1995. Later, they returned after ten years and examined the 145 Canadians from the original group that had since developed heart problems. Much to their surprise, they discovered that those individuals were not as happy as the subjects who were still healthy ten years later.

By using a five-point scale, the researchers measured the happiness of the study participants, adjusting their results to take into account other factors including age, gender and smoking. Overall, they discovered that for every 1-point increase on the happiness scale, the subjects were 22% less likely to experience heart problems. Obviously, we all experience depression or times of sadness, particularly during a long and brutal Michigan winter in a downtrodden economy. However, there’s good news for even those of us with the blues: the researchers found that even faking happiness helps to keep your heart healthier.