Happiness Is Next to Healthiness for Women

Researchers have a new remedy for women who want to stave off heart disease: Take a dose of optimism.

More specifically, a new study of more than 97,000 post-menopausal women found that those with positive attitudes had a lower risk of developing heart disease than their pessimistic counterparts.

Their risk of developing heart disease was 9 percent lower, and the risk of dying from any cause was 14 percent lower for optimists, according to the review in "Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association."

"The majority of evidence suggests that sustained, high degrees of negativity are hazardous to health." wrote Hilary A. Tindle, lead author of the study and assistant medical professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Wesley Chapel resident Janice Makar says she's living proof of the healing power of a positive attitude. She discovered during a routine checkup eight years ago that the main artery to her heart was 99 percent blocked. The then 36-year-old's plans to start a new workout regimen were quickly replaced by emergency bypass surgery.

"It happened so fast," she says, "I didn't have time to think 'whoa is me.' "

Instead she saw the scare as a challenge to improve her health. If doctors suggested she try to walk a mile, she walked two. Makar changed her eating and exercise behaviors, and at 44, she says she is healthier than ever.

"I didn't let the disease get to me," she says.

The University of Pittsburgh attitude study looked at females, ages 50 to 79, who participated in the national Women's Health Initiative and were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer at the study's start.