The Incidence Of Happiness On Health, According To Harvard University

The Incidence Of Happiness On Health, According To Harvard University

Harvard studied the incidence of happiness on health. Researchers have found that those who are happy live longer and with more quality.

What is the incidence of happiness on health? Can happiness lead to good health? That was the hypothesis raised at a symposium on the science of health and happiness at the New Research Building on the Longwood campus of Harvard. The event also highlighted that modern health care is not focused on health, but on disease.

However, the symposium emphasized the importance of focusing on the positive side of events. So it raised the idea of ​​focusing on assets that keep us healthy – or help us recover faster from illness and injury.

In this regard,  Dr. Laura Kubzansky stated that “ further study is urgently needed to understand these positive assets  and how to promote them to millions of people around the world ”.

How did this study get started?

It all started when  the Lee Kum Kee family made a donation to create a new Health and Happiness Center at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. With this, it would be possible to fund a center to study how to increase happiness and health in everyday life.

Specifically, the established premise was to discover how happiness can have a positive effect on health. Of course, this would be done by treating happiness as one of the determining factors of existence, not just a pretty phrase.

For her part, Laura Kubzansky, co-director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Chan School of Harvard, stated at the symposium that this has long been an opaque field of study, but that it is providing knowledge that supports the idea that health, well-being and happiness are inextricably linked.

Can happiness lead to health?

Francesca Dominici, research associate dean at the Chan School of Harvard, said “ the new center will focus on developing a ‘rigorous science’ about how positive psychological and social factors can influence health, and how to translate these findings into public policies with the objective of improving health in general” .

At the event, whose central axis was whether happiness can lead to health, one of the topics of discussion was how to translate the results into public policies, which will reduce the gap between academic institutions and the needs of people during their daily journeys.

What is the reason behind the impact of happiness on health?

Being happy not only leads to a state of absolute psychic satisfaction, but more and more progress is being made in proving that it also has a great influence on physical health. In this way, the substantial change from a state of happiness to a state of sadness can be verified even at the chemical level.

Happiness is felt and transferred throughout the body as countless endorphins are released from the spinal cord and bloodstream whenever we are with our loved ones, listen to our favorite music or simply take a walk. Thus,  we notice an improvement in our mood and even a reduction in the intensity of certain pains.

Andrew Steptoe, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at University College London, reported that there is a relationship between measures of well-being and health, as people who enjoyed life more not only lived longer, but aged slower.

However, Harvard University reports that an additional study has shown that people who are more satisfied with life are more likely to be physically active, eat healthier and wear sunscreen, and are less likely to smoke .

In addition,  less happy people have been shown to have higher levels of fat and cortisol, the stress-generating hormone. However, despite the respective advances in studies on the incidence of happiness on health, many questions remain unresolved.

after all, be happy

after all, be happy

Concern for happiness is an inherent condition of human existence. However, this concern has to coexist with many others that are not always compatible.

Understanding that most of our security is in the present and not the future is a long-lasting task. However, once we really start working with that idea or approach, problems tend to become challenges – opportunities for growth – rather than concerns.

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