Positive Thinking Promotes Good Health
New studies are showing that maintaining a positive outlook not only makes you an optimistic person - it can make you a healthier person as well.
Negative emotions such as fear, anger, sadness and stress can weaken your body's immune system and leave you more susceptible to various illnesses.
We have all been told that positive thinking can greatly assist in being healthy. I t is well known that high levels of stress, anxiety,depression, anger and negative thinking can result in severe physical and mental illnesses, and even fatalities, including suicide. But some neuroscientists have disputed the link between mental outlook and the immune system.
But there is new evidence to suggest a strong link between psychology and the health of the body and the brain. Many medical scientists believe that depression can cause heart attacks and other serious and fatal illnesses. Research has even found that women who care for Alzheimer’s patient stake longer to heal physical wounds than women who are not carers. It is also well-known that people with high levels of long-term stress are especially prone to colds and influenza, and are more likely to suffer complications as a result of these illnesses.
A study conducted at the University of Wisconsin suggests that stimulation of the regions of the brain correlated with negative emotions and thinking can weaken the immune response produced by taking the flu vaccine.Dr Richard J Davidson, is the director of the university’s Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience and one of the main authors of the study report, which is published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research team developed a task for participants that involved experiencing negative emotions. The study found that during the task,there was greater electrical activity in the right prefrontal cortex of the brain, and found that there was a weaker immune response six months later, as determined by the number of antibodies the body made as a result of the flu vaccination. However greater activation in the left prefrontal cortex was found to be associated with an increased immune response.
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