Happiness means better health

Tracey-Ann Brown, Complementary & Oriental Medicine

Happiness means better health

- Make that your New Year's resolution

About now many of us are doing our personal year-in-review evaluations and are wondering 'Was this a good year?', 'Am I really happy?', 'What would make me happy?', 'Is this job really working for me?', 'Am I in the right relationship?'The list is endless.

In short, we are calling ourselves to account and wondering how we can fix areas of obvious shortcomings. Ultimately, the goal is to have a meaningful and enjoyable life as much as one can. It almost goes without saying that most of us just want to be happy. So I started to consider the health benefits of being happy.

A TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE PERSPECTIVE

In traditional Chinese medicine, a person's emotional well-being figures greatly in one's wellness. In fact, frequent emotions of sadness, anger, worry, pensiveness, also overwork and excessive stress, are considered direct contributors to ill-health and are given similar weight to physical complaints in evaluating disease.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Research suggests that negative emotions can do harm to the body. Sustained stress and fear can alter the biological functioning of the body and may eventually lead to illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Chronic anxiety and anger can alter cardiac function, hastening the presentation of conditions such as atherosclerosis and increase systemic inflammation.

A 2007 study following 6,000 men and women between ages 25 and 74 for 20 years found that "a sense of enthusiasm, of hopefulness, of engagement in life, and the ability to face life's stresses with emotional balance appear to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. The protective effect was distinct and measurable, even when taking into account such wholesome behaviours as not smoking and regular exercise."

HEALTHY ATTRIBUTES

Research suggests that certain attributes, whether they are innate, cultivated or shaped by positive experiences in life, can help to avoid or manage diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and depression.

Attributes such as:

Emotional vitality: hopefulness, enthusiasm, engagement

Optimism: the belief that good things will happen, and through our actions good things will unfold in our lives

A network of supportive family and friends

The ability to bounce back from life's challenges, confident that things will eventually take a turn for the positive again

Making healthy lifestyle choices, such as: eating well and in moderation, exercise, avoiding risky behaviour such as unsafe sex and excessive alcohol consumption.

While the research is still young and processes are unclear of what may cause a positive link between positive mental and physical health, what would one lose if we all as best as we could strive conscientiously for a happier state of being?

I think the good is likely to outweigh the bad.

Here's to a happy 2014.

REFERENCE: HAPPINESS AND HEALTH, HSPH News (Harvard School of Public Health News), http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/happiness-stress-heart-disease/

Dr Tracey-Ann Brown is an oriental medicine practitioner of acupuncture and herbal medicine at Revamp Comprehensive and adjunct lecturer at the University of Technology in oriental/chinese medicine; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com