Happiness Boosts Heart Health
Last week on The PediaBlog, we learned about a new approach for treating two chronic childhood and adult diseases — overweight and obesity. The new guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics complements existing recommendations from health providers urging patients to make lifestyle modifications around healthy eating and physical activity in order to drive weight reduction.
We reviewed the growing concerns over a worsening problem involving American youth and its dangerous health consequences — type 2 diabetes, chronic lung disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, joint problems, mental illness, and cancer, just to name a few.
Obesity during childhood and adolescence is also a major risk factor for the development of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and, subsequently, heart disease. But it’s not the only risk factor. A study published last month in the Journal of the American Heart Association revealed another important risk factor for heart disease: not being happy.
The researchers surveyed more than 3,700 U.S. high school students in 1994 and followed them for 20 years. They identified five key mental health assets in teenagers that help determine cardiometabolic health (type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease are two indications) in adulthood. Kimberly Drake explains that those positive assets — happiness, self-esteem, optimism, feeling loved, and a sense of belonging — are all too often in short supply during adolescence:
The survey found that 55% of the young people had zero to one positive mental health asset, 29% had two to three assets, and 16% had four to five assets.
Then the scientists gathered the student’s health and wellbeing data over the years, with the last data collected in 2018.
The researchers also examined health measures for seven cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk factors. These measurements included cholesterol levels, blood pressure readings, blood sugar levels, and inflammatory markers.
The more of the positive assets teenagers possessed, the lower their risk was of developing chronic diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and chronic heart disease:
The scientists found that when the students became young adults, only 12% maintained their cardiometabolic health. Moreover, as they got older, Black or Latino participants were less likely to sustain cardiometabolic health than White students.
In addition, participants with four to five mental health assets were 69% more likely to experience good cardiometabolic health as young adults.
The team also found that each additional mental health asset resulted in a 12% greater likelihood of good cardiometabolic health.
Overall, happiness, self-esteem, optimism, feeling loved, and a sense of belonging conferred protective effects on all racial and ethnic groups
The title of Drake’s article in HealthNews shouldn’t shock anyone: “Being a Happy Teen May Equal Better Health in Adulthood, Study Suggests.”
Who knew?
source https://www.thepediablog.com/2023/01/30/happiness-boosts-heart-health/
Comments
Post a Comment