Pessimistic heart patients die early

As compared to those with an optimistic outlook, heart disease patients with a negative approach are more likely to die early. A patient's attitude toward their disease impacts their health over the long term and ultimately their survival. It's been seen that a positive approach can help in improving one's health. In people suffering from heart disease, this especially holds true. With an optimistic attitude, heart patients can decrease the chances of premature death. Positive expectations not only make you feel better but can also make you live longer. To examine the relationship between pessimism and survival in patients of heart disease, American researchers at Duke University Medical Center looked at individual expectations and death rates among 2825 adults who had heart disease detected between 1992 and 1996. In 2002, 6 to 10 years after being diagnosed with heart disease, 978 of the subjects had died, out of which 66 percent died from heart disease. The results presented at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting showed that the most pessimistic heart patients were twice as likely to have died as the most optimistic heart patients. The higher risk of death linked to pessimism remained consistent when the researchers accounted for factors that would also tend to increase the chance of dying, like the severity of heart disease, age, gender, income, signs of depression, and functional ability. Therefore, with positive thoughts one can lessen the damaging effects of stress in people with heart disease.