5 Ways To Be Happy and Healthy

Via Mercola Natural Health Articles by communities@mercola.com (Dr. Joseph Mercola)

By Dr. Mercola

If I were limited to only one area of my life in which I could aspire to be happy, undoubtedly I would choose my health.
In my experience, having a sense of health and well-being opens the door to contentment, purposeful living and
pleasure. In contrast, the absence of health can be limiting and sometimes downright depressing. It's easy to regard
happiness as something that happens to you, but I believe being happy is a choice, a state of mind you must actively
seek.

When you are consistently in a happy frame of mind, you are more likely to eat well, exercise regularly, get better sleep
and manage stress more effectively. All of those activities are beneficial habits associated with optimal health. It's well
known that happiness and good health are closely linked. In fact, scientific research has shown happiness positively
affects your heart health, immune system, stress levels, disease rates and longevity.

Being Happy Protects Your Heart

A 2012 analysis 1 by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), suggests positive mood may reduce your risk of heart
attacks, strokes and other heart-related events. After reviewing more than 200 previous studies published in two major
scientific databases, the authors found happiness, life satisfaction and optimism were associated with a reduced risk of
heart disease.

Said study author Julia Boehm, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of society, human development
and health at HSPH:2 "The most optimistic people had an approximately 50 percent reduced risk of experiencing an
initial cardiovascular event compared to their less-optimistic peers. From the research, it also appears these positive
factors slow the progression of disease."

Notably, the favorable association between happiness and heart health remained true regardless of factors such as
age, body weight, smoking and socioeconomic status. Boehm and her team observed optimistic people seem more
motivated to treat their bodies better than those with a negative disposition, which may impact heart health. Boehm
notes:3

"We found if you have a positive disposition you're more likely to exercise, eat well and get enough sleep
at night. This can have positive biological effects in terms of inflammation, cholesterol, blood pressure
and lipids. Engaging in healthier behaviors can lead to healthier bodily functions."

Emotional Vitality Is a Great Health Resource

The featured analysis echoes previous long-term research. 4 A 2007 HSPH study involving 6,025 men and women aged
25 to 74, followed over a mean period of 15 years, concluded emotional vitality influences the risk of coronary heart
disease (CHD). Researchers characterized emotional vitality as a sense of positive energy, the ability to effectively
regulate emotion and behavior, and positive well-being, which includes feeling engaged and interested in life. About
the research outcomes, study author Laura Kubzansky, Ph.D., HSPH professor of social and behavioral sciences,
said:5

"Findings suggest individuals with higher levels of emotional vitality had reduced risk of developing CHD.
… [O]ne mechanism underlying this relationship may be health behaviors.Greater emotional vitality was
significantly associated with less smoking, moderated alcohol consumption and more physical activity."

Being Happy Strengthens Your Immune System

While evidence from scientific studies suggests your mental state can influence your overall health, it has proven
difficult to explain how subjective moods affect your body on a molecular level, especially your nervous and immune
systems. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is the field tasked with searching for these explanations.

Under the umbrella of PNI, a small body of research led by Steven Cole, professor of medicine, psychiatry and
biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, has linked happiness to the function of your immune
cells."There's an intrinsic connection between our experience of life and the molecular function of our bodies," says
Cole.6

According to Cole, the balance of your immune system's two primary functions — fighting viral infection and fighting
bacterial infection through inflammatory response — is changeable based on your life experiences. His earlier work
suggested negative experiences such as being diagnosed with cancer or depression result in increased activity of
inflammation genes in your immune cells.7,8

"Over the past 15 years, we have found diverse social and psychological experiences that cause a sense
of threat or uncertainty can evoke a similar response in our immune cells. We're now beginning to ask
how positive life circumstances might potentially counteract those negative-threat effects at the molecular
level."

Emotional States Influence Genetic Expression

Cole partnered with researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to examine the notion of happiness
in biological terms. 9 The team asked 80 healthy adults 14 questions about their well-being. Questions ranged from how
happy participants felt to how often they felt their life had meaning, and were designed to distinguish between two forms
of happiness recognized by psychologists:10

1. Hedonic well-being (happiness characterized by emotions related to material and bodily pleasures)
2. Eudaimonic well-being (deeper satisfaction resulting from involvement in activities with a greater meaning or
purpose, such as charity work, intellectual pursuits or social relationships)

After analyzing the questionnaires to assess each participant's level of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, Cole's team
took blood samples to study the functioning of each contributor's immune cells. The bloodwork was necessary because
although both types of well-being are positive emotional states associated with happiness, the gene expression they
produce is different.

Interestingly, participants whose sense of happiness was rooted in eudaimonic well-being were found to have favorable
gene-expression profiles, meaning their immune cells showed higher levels of antiviral response and lower levels of
inflammatory response. In contrast, individuals reflecting more hedonic well-being produced gene profiles similar to
people undergoing stress due to adversity.

Meditation and Mind-Body Modalities Can Pay Off in Health Dividends

In terms of follow-up research, Cole hopes to figure out how to evoke a more eudaimonic-linked profile in the immune
system. For now, he believes mind-body practices like meditation can help. After all, such practices "have been shown
to cultivate positive and happy immune cells," states Cole.11

Research specifically indicates meditation, prayer and yoga, particularly in the context of long-term practice, have
many beneficial effects on your health, including your immune system. Researchers suggest the relaxation response
realized through these activities results in:12 "… enhanced expression of genes associated with energy metabolism,
mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance, and reduced expression of genes linked to
inflammatory response and stress-related pathways."

Being Happy Combats Stress

Although conventional wisdom maintains smiling is an effect of being happy, it may in fact be the other way around.
Research suggests if you "put on a happy face" you indeed may feel happier and less stressed. A 2012 study13
conducted at the University of Kansas affirms smiling as a stress reducer regardless of your actual mood.

For the experiment, 170 college students were trained to hold chopsticks in their mouths while maintaining one of three
different facial expressions: neutral, standard smile and Duchenne (more emphatic) smile. According to researchers,
the chopsticks were used to force participants to smile without them being aware they were doing so, and only half of
the group members were actually told to smile.

Next, the students completed stress-inducing tasks during which they self-reported their stress levels and researchers
measured their heart rates. Based on heart rate being an indicator of your body's response to stress, the results seem
to reflect smiling can reduce your stress levels regardless of your mood. The main outcomes from the study were two-
fold: 14

Participants who were instructed to smile, and especially those bearing bigger Duchenne smiles, maintained
lower heart rates as compared to the neutral-expression group
Participants who had not been explicitly told to smile, but were forced into a smiling expression because of the
chopsticks, also had lower heart rates than the neutral-expression group, but to a smaller degree

Study co-author Sarah Pressman, who currently is an associate professor of psychology and social behavior at the
University of California, Irvine, said:15 "The next time you are stuck in traffic or are experiencing some other type of
stress you might try to hold your face in a smile for a moment. Not only will it help you 'grin and bear it' psychologically,
but it might actually help your heart health as well."

Joyful Activities Are an Important Part of Self-Care

You may have already realized many of the aspects of your life that create happy feelings are also very likely to be
stress relievers. Activities such as being creative, enjoying your work, exercising, investing in a hobby and relating to
friends serve a dual purpose for generating happiness and relieving stress. According to VeryWell.com, incorporating
life-affirming activities into your lifestyle to balance potential stressors is an important aspect of caring for yourself:16

"When you're overwhelmed with stress, often just relieving the imminent pressures is foremost on your
mind; however, following a stress-relief program that also incorporates activities known to increase
overall happiness can give you short-term stress relief and the lasting gains of a happy life. And when
you incorporate into your life a general state of happiness, and make habit the lifestyle features that
promote it, you'll be better able to weather future stress in your life."

Being Happy Minimizes Pain, Illness and Disease

Because your emotions are a form of energy, positive emotions seem to contribute to better physical health. According
to Dr. Bradley Nelson, holistic chiropractor and author of "The Emotion Code," when you feel an emotion, what you're
really sensing is the vibration of a particular energy.17

These "balls of energy," particularly the ones associated with intense emotions, can become lodged just about
anywhere in your body, where they tend to cause disruptions in your body's energy system. When left unchecked, the
disruptions created by negative emotions may eventually translate into physical issues such as pain, illness and
disease. You may not realize your body cannot tell the difference between an actual experience that triggers an
emotional response and an emotion fabricated through a thought process alone.

For example, when you worry about something negative that might occur but has not actually happened, your body
may not know the difference between mere thoughts and reality, which may trigger your body's stress response.
Persistent ruminating and over-focusing on the negative in an emotional sense can open the door to all sorts of health
problems.
The converse is true for positive emotions like happiness. If you choose to consistently dwell on the positive and
pleasant aspects of life, your mind will elevate in ways that give you a more upbeat outlook. This upbeat outlook, or
happiness, can in turn fuel healthy attitudes and habits that will help you combat illness and disease.

Wherever You Are, Be Present

A great technique to help elevate your thoughts is the practice of mindfulness, which is a means of actively paying
attention to the moment you're in right now by maintaining an internal rather than external focus. Rather than letting
your mind roam free, when you're mindful you're tuned into the present moment inside yourself versus focused on your
racing thoughts about external circumstances.

Aside from helping you harness an internal sense of strength to go after what you want in life, including a more
positive, happier mental state, mindfulness can also help reduce stress-induced inflammation. Simple techniques such
as the following can help you to become more mindful:

Pay focused attention to an aspect of sensory experience, such as the sound of your own breathing
Distinguish between simple thoughts and those colored by emotion (such as "I have a performance review
tomorrow," versus "What if I get a bad review and don't get the raise I need?")
Reframe emotional thoughts as simply "mental projections" so your mind can rest

In the video below, Dr. Mike Evans, former staff physician at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital and founder of Reframe
Health Lab, speaks to some of the science of happiness, including mindfulness.

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Being Happy Lengthens Your Life

While it's long been thought being happy can improve your quality of life, research shows it may increase the quantity
of your life too. In 2014, researchers from Princeton University, Stony Brook University and University College London
(UCL) studied 9,050 English people to determine if happiness contributes to a longer life span.18

Participants, who were an average age of 65, were asked to respond to a questionnaire designed to measure their
eudemonic well-being (the type of happiness related to your sense of purposefulness and meaning about life).
Researchers divided respondents into four categories based on their answers, ranking them from highest to lowest
well-being.

The study results were adjusted for factors such as age, gender, physical health and socio-economic status to rule out
any influences that may negatively affect length of life. Notably, people expressing the greatest sense of well-being
were 30 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period, and lived on average two years longer than those
reporting the least well-being.

Study leader and professor Andrew Steptoe, head of the research department of behavioral science and health at
UCL's Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, suggests the research raises the possibility that higher levels of well-
being may indeed be related to improved physical health and longevity:19

"We have previously found happiness is associated with a lower risk of death. These analyses show the
meaningfulness and sense of purpose older people have in their lives are also related to survival … [T]he
findings raise the intriguing possibility that increasing well-being could help to improve physical health."

Happiness — A Secret Leveraging Agent

A 2011 review 20 of more than 160 studies of human and animal subjects, published in the journal Applied Psychology:
Health and Well-Being, also suggests "happy people tend to live longer and experience better health than their
unhappy peers." Lead author Ed Diener, University of Illinois professor emeritus of psychology and Gallup senior
scientist, shares his perspectives on the research:21

"Happiness is no magic bullet, but the evidence is clear and compelling that it changes your odds of
getting disease or dying young. Although there are a handful of studies that find opposite effects, the
overwhelming majority of studies support the conclusion that happiness is associated with health and
longevity."

With a few exceptions, Diener notes most of the long-term studies his team reviewed discovered variables such as
anxiety, depression, a lack of enjoyment of daily activities and pessimism are associated with higher rates of disease
and shorter lifespans.

If you struggle with happiness and need more tips and pointers beyond what's been suggested here — such as
meditation and mindfulness training — please see the following link to a previous article with a long list of habits known
to promote happiness and a joyful state of mind.

Related Articles:

23 (Scientific) Happiness Hacks

Ancient Wisdom Teachings for Greater Happiness

Happiness Is Good for Your Health

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