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Even happy people need life insurance

Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005

Scientists at UCL have discovered that being happy can improve one's health and increase life expectancy.

The public health researchers believe that a happy state of mind can lead to a healthier heart and help reduce levels of stress-inducing chemicals.

The research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) concludes that those people who experience more incidents of happiness over a day produce less harmful chemicals such as cortisol - meaning that they are likely to live longer and reduce the chance of developing heart disease.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, who led the study, said: "It has been suspected for the last few years that happier people may be healthier both mentally and physically than less happy people.

"What this study shows is that there are plausible biological pathways linking happiness with health."

The research forms part of a major psychobiology study aimed at studying heart disease development and involves 10,308 London-based civil servants recruited between 1985 and 1988.

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