What is happy health?
Happy Health
When we think of health, we usually think of exercise and diet, but there is another important factor. Being happy is just as important to your overall health as your eating habits and how much exercise you do. That said, boosting your happiness index can have many benefits.
Happiness and health are closely related and influence each other. Your health also suffers when you are depressed, and vice versa. Therefore, if you want to stay healthy, in addition to paying attention to the time you exercise every week, you should also pay more attention to the things around you that make you happy.
healthy people are happier
According to a study by the London School of Economics, health is one of the most important factors affecting a person’s happiness. The study “The Origins of Happiness” examines people’s level of life satisfaction and the factors that influence it.
Studies have shown that when asked what makes people happy, money has far less influence than having healthy and good relationships. This reflects that physical and mental health is an extremely important factor for happiness.
In the same way, poor interpersonal relationships and poor health can reduce happiness index more than changes in the economic environment. The results of this study are based on data from a total of 200,000 respondents in four countries.
happy people live longer
A representative study examining the impact of positive attitudes on health found that happy people lived longer. Researchers at the University of Kentucky in the US published a study of nuns on what a positive mindset can do for your body.
They found that nearly 90 percent of the happy nuns were still alive at age 85, compared with 34 percent of the more negative group. In fact, more than half (54%) of the happy nuns lived past the age of 94, compared with 11% of the other group. This proves that being in a good mood can indeed make you live longer.
In addition, the study further showed that the happy nuns were less likely to develop dementia than the unhappy nuns. This means that they not only live longer but also healthier.
Happiness can protect the heart
Many studies have shown that happiness and heart health are closely related, and maintaining a positive attitude can help you prevent serious diseases.
A study published in 2005 by University College London found that those who were happier generally had lower blood pressure and heart rate, indicators of health. Participants in the study were asked to answer their happiness index thirty times a day, and then again three years later.
The researchers found that those who were among the happiest on the first self-assessment generally had a lower heart rate, about six beats per minute less than the average. The happiest people also had better blood pressure scores in a follow-up study three years later.
What’s more, a 2010 study by Columbia University Medical Center found that those who lost their tempers and were less stressed at work were less likely to develop heart disease.
The researchers interviewed about 2,000 Canadians and asked them to rate how often they expressed positive emotions on a scale of 1 to 5. When the researchers followed up with the respondents ten years later, they found that those who thought they were happier also had healthier hearts. For every 1% increase, the risk of heart disease among respondents decreased by 22%.
Happiness strengthens the immune system
Maintaining a good mood not only reduces your chances of catching serious illnesses, but also reduces the risk of minor ailments such as colds and colds. Studies have found that being optimistic can strengthen your immune system, helping your body fight off viruses and making them less harmful to you.
In a study of 350 people at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, they looked at the relationship between being happy and getting a cold. Participants were called six times over a two-week period to see how often they felt one of the nine positive moods during that period.
After the interview, the participants were placed in an environment with the cold virus, and they were isolated for five days for observation. The study found that those participants who experienced the nine positive emotions more often in the previous two weeks had stronger immunity and were less likely to catch colds. Although this study is not very in-depth, other related studies have also reached similar conclusions.
These all prove that your happiness level can affect and help improve your health. So in addition to trying to burn calories every day, you also have to think about how to put a smile on your face.