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Being Sad is Not Bad! Happiness Does Not Guarantee a Longer Life Span

by Reshma Anand on Dec 10 2015 6:35 PM

Happiness was not associated with longevity of life and also nonsmokers tended to be happier than smokers.

Being Sad is Not Bad! Happiness Does Not Guarantee a Longer Life Span
Happiness Myth Busted! Being happy may not extend your lifespan, revealed a new study.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales conducted the studyin one million women. They found that happiness was not associated with longevity of life and also nonsmokers tended to be happier than smokers.

The study was published in The Lancet and was a part of the Oxford university’s The million Women Study.

“Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn’t make you ill. We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a ten-year study of a million women,” Dr Liu said.

“The study is so large that it rules out unhappiness being a direct cause of any material increase in overall mortality, in women. This was true for overall mortality, for cancer mortality, and for heart disease mortality, and it was true for stress as well as for unhappiness,” the study’s authors wrote.

Older women, nonsmokers, those in a relationship and those who were physically active were found to be happier than their peers. Women who got enough sleep and those who belonged to a religious group or were socially active also reported being happier.

“Of course people who are ill tend to be unhappier than those who are well, but The Million Women Study shows that happiness and unhappiness do not themselves have any direct effect on death rates,” said co-author of the study Richard Peto.

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Source-Medindia


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