Be Happy: Live Longer

We all know that person. It seems like they're always smiling, always finding the positive in a situation, like a ray of sunshine walking into a room. And then there's the other person, the one who always seems to have a cloud over their head. Not only is the glass half full, they don't even want the glass. Yet it is more than just a personality trait. The research on optimism suggests something bigger may be at play, one that reaches all the way down to how long we live.

For years, we've heard that diet and exercise are the pillars of a long, healthy life. It turns out our outlook may matter just as much. A landmark study out of Boston University and Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health followed nearly 70,000 women and over 1,400 men for up to 30 years. Researchers found that optimism was linked to an 11 to 15 percent longer life span on average, along with significantly greater odds of living to age 85 or beyond. And here's the part that surprised even the scientists: the relationship held up across racial and ethnic groups, and lifestyle factors like exercise and diet only explained a modest portion of the connection.

So what's actually going on beneath the surface? Optimistic people tend to engage in healthier behaviors, experience better stress management, and show reduced inflammation, all of which play a role in long-term health. There's a physical side to this too. A 2019 review of 15 studies involving more than 229,000 participants found that people with higher optimism had a 35 percent lower risk of cardiovascular events compared to those with a more pessimistic outlook. Our hearts, it seems, are listening to our thoughts.

We're not talking about ignoring life's hard moments or pretending everything is fine when it isn't. Optimism, as researchers define it, is simply the general expectation that good things are ahead, and the belief that we have some control over getting there. That's a mindset we can build, one small shift at a time.

Try naming one good thing before you start your day. Keep a running list on your phone of moments that made you smile. When something goes wrong, ask what you can learn from it rather than staying stuck in it. None of this requires a gym membership or a prescription.

We spend so much energy managing our risk factors. Maybe it's time we gave equal attention to looking at the glass half full!

Robin Stoloff is an award-winning health reporter in South Jersey. A former TV reporter, she now hosts Living Well with Robin Stoloff, Sunday mornings at 10 am on Lite 96.9 WFPG. "Empowering you to live a healthier life" is not just her tagline, it is her mission. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube at "Living Well with Robin Stoloff."

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