If you want to get healthier, give thanks.
By Elizabeth Heubeck
WebMD Feature
What would happen if we extended the tradition of giving thanks, typically celebrated just once a year during the holiday season, throughout the entire year? Such gratitude would be rewarded with better health, say researchers.
No pill? No strict diet or exercise regimen? Can just a positive emotion such as gratitude guarantee better health? It may be a dramatic departure from what we've been taught about how to get healthier, but the connection between gratitude and health actually goes back a long way.
"Thousands of years of literature talk about the benefits of cultivating gratefulness as a virtue," says University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons. Throughout history, philosophers and religious leaders have extolled gratitude as a virtue integral to health and well-being. Now, through a recent movement called positive psychology, mental health professionals are taking a close look at how virtues such as gratitude can benefit our health. And they're reaping some promising results.
Benefits of Gratitude
Grateful people -- those who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than a
temporary state of mind -- have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to
health, according to Emmons' research on gratitude. "Grateful people take
better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like
regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations," Emmons tells WebMD.
Stress Buster
It's no secret that stress can make us sick, particularly when we can't cope with
it. It's linked to several leading causes of death, including heart disease and
cancer, and claims responsibility for up to 90% of all doctor visits.
Gratitude, it turns out, can help us better manage stress. "Gratitude research
is beginning to suggest that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive
value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress," Emmons
says.
Immune Booster
Grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that researchers say boosts
the immune system. "There are some very interesting studies linking optimism to
better immune function," says Lisa Aspinwall, PhD, a psychology professor at the
University of Utah. In one, researchers comparing the immune systems of healthy,
first-year law students under stress found that, by midterm, students
characterized as optimistic (based on survey responses) maintained higher
numbers of blood cells that protect the immune system, compared with their more
pessimistic classmates.
Optimism also has a positive health impact on people with compromised health. In separate studies, patients confronting AIDS, as well as those preparing to
undergo surgery, had better health outcomes when they maintained attitudes of
optimism.
Cultivating Gratitude
Not convinced that gratitude can improve your overall health and well-being? "Try
it out for yourself. What's the alternative? I think gratitude is the best
approach to life," Emmons says.
SOURCE: WebMD, written By Elizabeth
Heubeck http://women.webmd.com/features/gratitute-health-boost