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Cheerful People Less Likely to Become Stroke Victims

Wed, 03/28/2001 - 1:00am — Karen Stevenson
Description: 

About 400,000 new cases of stroke occur each year in the United States, and stroke is the third most common cause of death and is a leading cause of long-term disability among the elderly. But a study published March 22 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, the Journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, reports that people who are happy are less likely to become victims of strokes, and people who often feel blue tend to have more strokes than older adults who are not depressed.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston reached their conclusions about the apparently protective effect of happiness after analyzing data on 2,478 white and black men and women 65 years of age or older from five North Carolina counties. None of the people in the group whose data was re-examined by the Texas researchers reported having had a stroke at the beginning of the study, but they were tracked with annual interviews, during which time 340 strokes occurred, 75 of them fatal.

About 400,000 new cases of stroke occur each year in the United States, and stroke is the third most common cause of death and is a leading cause of long-term disability among the elderly. But a study published March 22 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, the Journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, reports that people who are happy are less likely to become victims of strokes, and people who often feel blue tend to have more strokes than older adults who are not depressed.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston reached their conclusions about the apparently protective effect of happiness after analyzing data on 2,478 white and black men and women 65 years of age or older from five North Carolina counties. None of the people in the group whose data was re-examined by the Texas researchers reported having had a stroke at the beginning of the study, but they were tracked with annual interviews, during which time 340 strokes occurred, 75 of them fatal.