A reason to be optimistic in challenging times
It is very easy right now with the constant news reports about the spread of Coronavirus to flip from being informed and aware to worried about our own health & saftey and that of our friends & family.
So right now acknowledge how you feel about the spread of the Coronavirus, whether its anxiety, worried, fear etc. Often what happens when we get anxious, worried or fearful is that we project that state into our future. So at this current moment, most us are healthy; our loved ones are well, and life is fine. So, be grateful for the things that are going well in your life right now and focus on the present. And breath!
Two long running studies in the US which collected information from male war veterans and female nurses aged around 60 to 70 years old when they completed optimisim questionaires. People who had the highest optimism scores had a lifespan about 9% longer than those with the lowest scores. The most optimistic were in fact no more likely to live to the age of 85.
This reseach cannot prove cause and effect. Both optimisim and lifespace may be influenced by many hereditary, health, lifestyle and personal factors. People with a good overall standard of health and wellbeing are probably more optimistic about their future. While researchers attempted to adjust their analysis for these sorts of factors, it’s hard to remove their influence fully.
Nevertheless the research does highlight that optimists live longer and the importance that mental health and wellbeing can have on physical health.
So right now focus on what is going well in your life.
Research
https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/reason-be-cheerful-optimists-live-longer-study-reports/
Related Posts
Is eating organic food worth it?
I have often wondered weather paying that bit more for organic food is worth it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I normally buy organic eggs and meat but with vegatables I am really not very consistent. I know with organic vegatables you get less pesticides but is it worth it. I know in the past studies have shown that there was no benefit. However recently researches in France tracked 68,946 adults and decided to compare cancer rates in people who eat organic food and those who didn't. They discovered that eating organic food
- reduces your risk of cancer by 25%
- reduces your risk of non-Hodgkins lymphoma by 73%
- reduces your risk of post-menopausal breast cancer by 21%
Guess what science has discovered about back pain …
According to the UK's Office for National Statistics the UK economy loses almost 31 million work days per year which costs the UK economy £14 billion to bad backs, neck & other muscle problems. A bad back is of the most common causes of absence and 80% of p will suffer with people will experience back pain at some point in their lives. At Vitality Therapy we find back pain is something we treat on a regular basis. I know a lot of my clients and potential clients are interested in what the latest scientific research is on how effective massage is for treating back pain, becuase they don't want to waste their time and money if massage isn't going to help them. Until now scientific studies of the effectiveness of massage were conducted in controlled research situations. However in a recent study, a physician sent patients to a massage therapist. The massage therapist designed and provided a series of 10 massage -- at no cost to the patient -- in a clinical treatment environment. This clinical treatment environment mimicks the experience of people who choose to seek massage in the real world. More than 50 percent of those who participated in the study experienced clinically meaningful improvements in their low back pain. The reasearches concluded that the study gives primary care providers (i.e. GPs) the confidence to tell patients with chronic low back pain to try massage, if the patients can afford to do so. References http://www.nhsemployers.org/news/2015/04/bad-backs-cost-the-uk-31-million-days-of-work Elder WG, Munk N, et al, 2017, Real Wold Massage Therapy Produces Meaningful Effectiveness Signal for Primary Care Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Results of a Repeated Measures Cohort Study, Journal of Pain Medicine, 18(7):1394-1405
Can going to the sauna help your BP?
I will start with a confession. While I know the benefits of hydotherapy - basically you take a hot shower for 30 seconds then switch to freezing cold for 30 seconds, then go back to hot and repeat for 2 or 3 minutes - it has never appealed to me. It may be fantastic for blood flow and good for your liver, but to me it seems brutal! So in the past, I have only spent a few short minutes in a sauna and I have never been tempted to jump into the ice cold plunge pool afterwards - despite my finnish friends telling me how fantastic it is. So I was interested in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study which looked at if frequent use of a sauna has reduces the risk of high BP. The study looked at 1,621 middle-aged men living in eastern Finland. The study found that
- Going to the sauna 4 to 7 times per week reduces your risk of develping High BP by 46%.
- Going to the sauna 2 to 3 times per week reduces your risk of develpoing High BP by 24%.
