This study examines the role of emotions in protecting or provoking heart disease in individuals.

This study should prompt more work.

However, there is a generous body of medical research on the role of social support (friends/family) in heart disease.

A patient who has strong social support but more advanced heart disease fares better than a patient whose disease is milder but who lacks social support.

Social support, however, could be the way cardiac disease-prone people offset their emotional styles—even when disease has developed. That is not the question this study asked, however.

Cardiac disease is complicated by many factors.

It is hard to imagine any study which would suggest that being happy and staying positive is unhealthy.

Stay tuned.

BBC

“Being happy and staying positive may help ward off heart disease, a study suggests.”

“US researchers monitored the health of 1,700 people over 10 years, finding the most anxious and depressed were at the highest risk of the disease.

“They could not categorically prove happiness was protective, but said people should try to enjoy themselves.

“But experts suggested the findings may be of limited use as an individual’s approach to life was often ingrained.

“At the start of the study, which was published in the European Heart Journal, participants were assessed for emotions ranging from hostility and anxiousness to joy, enthusiasm and contentment.”

Source: BBC, February 18, 2010

Citation: European Heart Journal. Feb 17, 2010, DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehp603.

Citation: European Heart Journal, February 17, 2010 DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehq03