Look on the bright side and survive longer
By Bruce Bower
Brief autobiographies written more than 60 years ago by a group of then young Catholic nuns have now become a matter of life or death. Those nuns who chronicled positive emotions in their twenties have lived markedly longer than those who recounted emotionally neutral personal histories, a new study finds.
This result, which derives from a study group with unprecedented similarity in lifestyle and social status, supports earlier evidence that expressing happiness, interest, love, and other positive feelings enhances physical health, say psychologist Deborah D. Danner of the University of Kentucky in Lexington and her colleagues. The nuns were participating in a study on aging and Alzheimer’s disease (SN: 5/18/96, p. 312).