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• Posted September 18, 2024

Feeling Content Helps Shield You From Heart Attack, Stroke

Folks who are content with what they’ve got could be less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, a new study suggests.

“Our findings support a holistic approach to health care, where enhancing a person’s mental and emotional well-being is considered an integral part of preventing heart disease and stroke,” said senior study author Dr. Wen Sun, associate director of the Stroke Center at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China.

“Health care professionals might consider including strategies to improve life satisfaction and happiness as part of routine care, such as recommending regular physical activities, social activities or stress management techniques as effective ways to enhance personal well-being,” Sun added.

For the study, researchers analyzed data gathered from more than 120,000 participants in the U.K. Biobank, a large-scale medical database.

Participants filled out questionnaires that assessed their well-being in terms of satisfaction with family, friendships, health, finances and general happiness. Researchers compared people’s well-being with their risk of four major heart-related diseases.

Results show that people with the highest well-being scores had:

• A 44% lower risk of clogged arteries.

• A 45% lower risk of stroke.

• A 51% lower risk of heart failure.

• A 56% lower risk of heart attack.

Further analysis suggested that people who feel more content tend to adopt healthier lifestyles and suffer less inflammation, researchers said.

“These results underscore the profound impact that emotional and psychological health can have on physical well-being, shedding light on intricate biological mechanisms that were not fully appreciated before,” Sun said.

The new study was published Sept. 18 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The author of a 2021 American Heart Association statement on the mind-heart-body connection, Dr. Glenn Levine, said the findings were “not unexpected,” but they help flesh out the link between mental health and heart risk.

“Much of the focus on psychological health has understandably been on negative factors such as depression and stress. This study emphasizes the importance of positive psychological health, including the more global factor of a person’s sense of well-being,” Levine, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a journal news release. Levine was not involved in the study.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on positivity and heart health.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, Sept. 18, 2024