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

    The latest study by US investigators 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 pessimists had higher blood pressure and cholesterol.

    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, cynical women who harboured hostile thoughts about others or were generally mistrusting of others were 16% more likely to die over the same time scale.

    One possibility is that optimists 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, high degrees of negativity are hazardous 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 fully 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."

    在美國的一項研究表明，樂觀的女性患心臟疾病導致死亡的風險稍低。

    美國的最新調查迎合了以前有荷蘭隊提出的樂觀能玩就心臟病的人的觀點。

    雜志所述，在對100,000位婦女的研究，其中患高血壓或膽固醇高的人高發在悲觀主義的人身上。

    對這些風險的重視程度決定著風險的發作

    樂觀的婦女有9%的優勢避免心臟病的侵襲，而在患病后的8年里死亡的機率占到了14%.

    相比之下，多疑的那些婦女，經常隱藏對別人的敵意，16%的人更容易在相同的時間內死亡。

    另一個可能性是樂觀主義者能夠更正確的應付逆境，例如，當他們自己生病是他能夠照顧自己。

    研究表明，樂觀的女性鍛煉得多，而且比悲觀的人瘦的多。

    匹斯堡大學藥學專業的助理教授，主要研究員Hilary Tindle博士說："多數的實踐證明持續高度的消極狀態會加大死亡的風險。"

    英國心臟基金會的一位女性發言人說："我們知道懷有敵意的情緒能夠釋放身體內的某些化學物質這樣會加大心臟疾病的危險，但是我們還不能完全的清楚為什么"

    樂觀或者敵對情緒也能與健康的情緒有聯系，例如吸煙與不健康的飲食也會影響心臟的健康。

    對所有的女性來說，不顧及前景怎樣，做健康的選擇，例如不吸煙，吃得好點，這些對你的心臟健康的的影響生于你的前途

    為什么會有這樣的心理需要更多的研究。