Women who are optimistic have a lower risk of heart disease and death, an American study shows.

一向美国调查显示，乐观的妇女患心脏病和死亡的风险比较低。

It pays to be optimistic

The latest study by US investigators¹ mirrors the findings of earlier work by a Dutch team showing optimism reduces heart risk in men.

The research on nearly 100,000 women, published in the journal Circulation, found pessimists²（悲观主义者） had higher blood pressure and cholesterol³（胆固醇）.

Even taking these risk factors into account, attitude alone altered risks.

Optimistic women had a 9% lower risk of developing heart disease and a 14% lower risk of dying from any cause after more than eight years of follow-up.

In comparison, cynical⁴（愤世嫉俗的） women who harboured hostile（敌对的） thoughts about others or were generally mistrusting of others were 16% more likely to die over the same time scale.

One possibility is that optimists⁵ are better at coping with adversity, and may, for example take better care of themselves when they do fall ill.

In the study, the optimistic women exercised more and were leaner than pessimistic peers.

Lead researcher Dr Hilary Tindle, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said: "The majority of evidence suggests that sustained（持久的）, high degrees of negativity are hazardous⁶（危险的） to health."

A spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation said: "We know that hostile emotions can release certain chemicals in the body which may increase the risk of heart disease, but we don't fully⁷ understand how and why.

"Optimistic or hostile attitudes can be linked to health behaviours such as smoking or poor diet, which may also influence heart health.

"A good thing for all women is that regardless of your outlook, making healthy choices such as not smoking and eating well, will have much more of an impact on your heart health than your outlook.

"More research is needed to explore how and why these psychological attitudes may affect health."