It has been said over and over again; to have a longer life, you need to have a happy life. In fact many self-help books that preach life-changing benefits of happiness have become best sellers however, a new study reveals this isn't the case.
Many people believe that unhappiness caused by several external factors like situations at work, relationships or just plain dissatisfaction can shorten your life. Although some studies in the past seem to support that belief, The Guardian reports a major study that claims it isn't true. They say that happiness will not save you from death or make you live longer. On the other hand, stress related misery will not shorten your life either.
While it is true that poor health makes people unhappy and ultimately lead to a shorter life, unhappiness itself does not cause any illness or death. Researchers at Oxford University studied around one million women aging 60 in the United Kingdom.
"Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn't make you ill," said Dr. Bette Liu, now at the University of New South Wales in Australia. "We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a 10-year study of a million women."
The study was part of the UK Million Women program, which examines the causes of breast and ovarian cancer. The women filled in questionnaires about several aspects of their lives including happiness and are still followed up until today.
"The claim that this [unhappiness] is an important cause of mortality is just nonsense. Compare it with light smoking, where, if you smoke five to 10 a day, you are twice as likely to die in middle age," said co-author Prof Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University.
Unhappiness may make people lead an unhealthy lifestyle such as eating or drinking too much, but happiness does not have a direct effect on morality. In the survey conducted the death rates among the unhappy were no higher than those who said they were usually happy.
More so, the study doesn't show any concrete evidence that happiness itself can reduce the risk for cardiac, cancer or overall mortality.
Although it is still best to lead a happy and contented life with or without the health benefits.
