Research shows that expressing gratitude can reduce the risk of a heart attack

Research shows that being grateful for the people and things in your life can reduce your risk of a heart attack.

More than 900 people who took part in a survey were asked to what extent they agreed with the statement “I have so much in life to be grateful for” and how strongly they felt “grateful to a variety of people”. . .

The results showed that those who expressed the most gratitude were less likely to have a heart attack in the next four to nine years.

There is evidence that writing short lists of things to be grateful for can increase well-being and life satisfaction, with keeping a “gratitude journal” becoming increasingly popular.

However, the study found that people with high levels of gratitude only had a lower risk of heart attack when stressful situations also increased their heart rate.

In the UK, around one person is admitted to hospital every five minutes after a heart attack – up to 100,000 people a year (stock photo)

More research is needed because increased heart rate in response to stress is more often associated with a higher risk of heart problems.

However, the study authors believe that the results can be explained by the fact that people who are willing to make more effort in stressful situations tend to be the ones who are most grateful in life.

This can increase their heart rate but also cause them to be less stressed in general; Calmer people tend to lead healthier lives, which means they are less likely to have a heart attack.

Mr Brian Leavy, a psychologist from Maynooth University in Ireland who led the research, said: “The results obtained provided further evidence that positive emotions such as gratitude are associated with better health outcomes, particularly in promoting cardiovascular health – Health.”

The study, published in the journal Biological Psychology, examined 912 people in the United States with an average age of 57 years.

They were asked about gratitude and also given a maths test to increase their stress levels.

They also took a test in which they saw words as red, sometimes confusingly written in yellow font and had to respond quickly to the color of the font rather than the color describing the word.

To add pressure to both tests, participants were told that if they did not answer quickly enough, their answers would automatically be marked as incorrect.

People who were very grateful for the things and people in their lives and whose heart rate also increased in response to the stress tests had a lower risk of having a heart attack.

In the UK, around one person is admitted to hospital every five minutes after a heart attack; up to 100,000 people per year.

The study’s results suggest that grateful people, who can also be more optimistic and positive, were more engaged in stressful tasks and put more effort into completing them, which increased their heart rate – which could mean they felt less pressure .

This may prevent them from resorting to unhealthy coping strategies that can harm their heart, although this is speculation and not supported by research.

The study found that people who were most grateful had a lower risk of having a heart attack, even after controlling for factors such as age, body mass index (BMI) and whether they had ever smoked.

This was despite the fact that a third of the study participants had high blood pressure and almost one in ten had diabetes, which can increase the risk of a heart attack.