Happiness helps keep the heart fit: Study

LONDON: People who are usually happy and enthusiastic are less likely to develop heart disease than those who tend to be glum, scientists said yesterday.

Researchers in the United States said their observational study was the first to show an independent relationship between positive emotions and coronary heart disease, but stressed more work was needed before any recommendations could be made.

"We desperately need rigorous clinical trials. If trials support our findings, these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and/or patients could do to improve health," Karina Davidson of Columbia University Medical Center wrote in the study in the European Heart Journal.