tkgoodspirit

Hey all,

I recieved a special email from someone who also suffers from FM. He lost his wife last year to cancer and his outlook on life is amazing. I wanted to share his wonderful words. He also included information from a scientific study that shows research done that indicates how profound an effect, happiness and laughter have on our physical well being.

Although I hope everyone will enjoy the "humor" as well as the article, this one is a "gift" to bluelakelady! Here's to you blue!

Here's the message from a fellow Fibromight:
It's so easy for people to say things like the article below, but is it realistic? I think it is. With every tragedy or devestation there is an upside to it, you just have to look deep. And sometimes very long as well, but it's there.

From my own perspective I see life as simple as this. You're born out of love, you spend the first half of your life learning, then you spend the last half of your life helping people from the wisdom you've learned, then you die and meet up with all your loved ones again for eternity.

So because of that perspective (and knowing where my end home is) there is:

_ NO WAY that a simpleton that cuts me off in traffic is going to ruin my day and stress me out. (and there's no cars in Heaven)

_ NO WAY is a Doctor who doesn't understand this illness going to make me feel less of a person than I really am. (all doctors are unemployed in Heaven)

_ NO WAY is a bit of poverty going to make me hang my head down and feel inadequate. (purchases in Heaven are made with good attitudes, not cash

So as you read the article below remember to smile, it could add years on to your life and happier ones at that.

Love you guys,
***

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Okay here comes my usual "I'm not stealing copywrited material" schpeel!
This article is "populated" in order to share information. Names and quotes here are merely used to show comments made by the researcher's and to show the source of their University or Labratory location where the study took place.

Happiness helps people stay healthy

People who are happier in their daily lives have healthier levels of key body chemicals than those who muster few positive feelings, a new study suggests. This means happier people may have healthier hearts and cardiovascular systems, possibly cutting their risk of diseases like diabetes.

Previous studies have shown that depression is associated with health problems compared to average emotional states. But few studies have looked at the effects of positive moods on health. Now, researchers at University College London, UK, have linked everyday happiness with healthier levels of important body chemicals, such as the stress hormone cortisol.

“This study showed that whether people are happy or less happy in their everyday lives appears to have important effects on the markers of biological function known to be associated with disease,” says clinical psychologist Jane Wardle, one of the research team. “Perhaps laughter is the best medicine,” she adds.

“This is the best data to date that associates positive emotional feelings with good effects on your health,” says Carol Shively, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US. “We usually concentrate on things that are either bad or wrong, rather than good or right.”

Civil subjects
The team studied 216 middle-aged men and women living in London, UK, who are part of the ongoing “Whitehall II” study of thousands of civil servants, led by Michael Marmot.

This subset was asked to rate how happy they had been feeling in the last five minutes at about 33 points during their working or leisure days. At these points, their heart rates and blood pressures were also measured by an automated system.

Saliva samples were also taken from the volunteers at eight points during a working day and a leisure day to test levels of the stress hormone cortisol. On one occasion, the subjects were invited into the lab and given a “mildly stressful” task to perform while their biological responses were measured. The team controlled for factors such as socioeconomic position, age and gender to try to tease out the effects of happiness alone on health.

“The happier you were, the lower your cortisol levels during the day,” says Wardle. “For men, but not for women, the happier you were the lower your average heart rate was.”

Cortisol is a stress hormone of which high levels are linked to conditions such as type II diabetes and hypertension. And lower heart rates are associated with good cardiovascular health.

Sticky blood
In addition, individuals who said they were happy nearly every time they were asked had lower levels of a blood protein called fibrinogen following the stressful task. This molecule makes blood “sticky” and is vital in the clotting process, but high concentrations can signal future coronary heart disease problems.

Shively notes that scientists have theorised that emotions enable individuals to respond appropriately to the environment. “Here’s a great example of how happiness might be modulating responses to the environment. Happiness might be every bit as important as other emotions which get a lot more press, like anger or depression.”

Wardle adds that the way the brain functions during happy states “perhaps makes the little hassles and irritations of everyday life loom less large, so you don’t get such strong reactions to them”.


There ya go blue! A "regift" of special words I rec'd from a special person.
Now I'm giving them to you. And the study about Happiness just drives home what your beautiful words in all of your posts have shown us all along, IT'S ALL IN THE ATTITUDE!

All these doctors and researchers spent a lot of time showing us the scientific effects of happiness on our bodies, WE KNEW IT ALL ALONG! It has been right here infront of us. But, it's kinda cool to see how it works "scientifically".

Love to ALL of you!
tk

__________________
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world"
Mahatma Gandhi