A positive and optimistic attitude can protect elderly people from becoming frail, according to new research exploring the power of positive thinking.
Positive attitudes have been known to speed up the healing of fractures, slow the progression of HIV infection, and protect against heart disease and stroke. The new study adds to a growing literature on the virtues of being optimistic, having self-esteem, being happy and enjoying life.
The seven-year study sampled a large number of elderly Mexican Americans in the Southwest. Frailty was measured using criteria such as weight loss, exhaustion, walking speed and grip strength. People with the most positive attitudes at the start of the study had the smallest declines as time went on, according to University of Texas researchers Glenn Ostir, Kenneth Ottenbacher and Kyriakos Markides.
Long the mainstay of self-help books, the psychological study of positive emotions is slowly becoming a growth industry. In an article published this month in the journal Psychology and Aging, researchers said the new data could help the nation’s growing elderly population stave off physical ailments.
The researchers noted that positive attitudes might even compensate for the ill effects of poverty and may reverse the effects of stress and negative emotions on cardiovascular disease. Building and maintaining relationships with others, the authors noted, “is associated with better mental health, less disease and disability, and increased survival.”
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