A study published in The British Medical Journal suggests that, contrary to common belief, your approach to life has little effect on your risk of future heart disease.
It's well known that factors such as hyptertension, hyperlipidaemia and type 2 diabetes contribute to risk of heart disease, but the effect of mood, or affect, is not so clear. Several prospective studied have found that anger and hostility and depression appear to affect the risk of heart disease.
Hermann Nabi and colleagues examined whether positive and negative affect (mood) had any effect on subsequent heart disease. They enrolled 10 308 civil servants, aged between 35 and 55, originally located in London and followed them up for 12.5 years. What they found was that there was no link between positive affect and future heart disease. There was a weak link between negative affect and subsequent heart disease, but, the authors say, further study is needed.
