Being Pessimistic May Hurt Your Heart

A recent study adds to the growing body of evidence that your emotional health can play a part in heart health.

An 11-year study of nearly 3,000 Finnish men and women found that those who were more pessimistic at the start of the study were twice as likely to die of coronary heart disease than those who were not pessimistic. Being optimistic seemed to have no effect on the risk of dying.

“This may be another useful factor to look at when determining overall risk for heart disease death,” says Dusan Knezevic, M.D., affiliated with Hackensack University Medical Center. “It’s possible that a pessimistic outlook might be changed through behavioral counseling.”