Positive thinking


As life expectancy increases and more and more people are living into old age, one question has become the Holy Grail for governments, health services and individuals alike: how do we live healthier and happier lives as well as living longer ones?


expectancy has come a greater emphasis on quality of life. Can we compress that proportion of the life we currently lead with a chronic disease, disability or dementia? And if, as is widely acknowledged, happiness improves health, how can we make people happier in order to prevent them from becoming ill in the first place? To answer some of these questions, academics have been looking at precisely what it is about happiness that leads to good health. Professor Andrew Steptoe of University College London’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health says: “It could be that happier people lead healthier lifestyles. But the evidence for that is inconsistent – for example, drinking more alcohol often goes with being happy and more outgoing.


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Or it may be that bits of the brain responsible for feelings are closely linked with the control of blood pressure, and we have seen an association between happiness and lower levels of cortisol (a stress


24 SOCIETY NOW AUTUMN 2010


IFE EXPECTANCY HAS soared in richer countries in the past three decades, to the extent that many babies born in Britain today will live past the age of 100. With increased life


We know that there is a relationship between happiness and good health, but we don’t yet know what it is


hormone related to type II diabetes and coronary heart disease), and inflammation.” Happier people, he says, seem to be able to protect themselves against some serious health problems, and his team has been examining how that ‘health protection process’ works, as well as unravelling the ‘plausible biological pathways’ that link happiness with health. Professor Steptoe’s ESRC-funded study looked at


600 women in similar occupations in three countries where happiness levels vary: the Netherlands, whose citizens are judged to have a higher-than-average sense of wellbeing; Hungary, where happiness levels are low; and the UK, which comes somewhere in the middle. During a working day and a day off, the heart rate variability of the women was measured with chest monitors and their cortisol levels were assessed by taking samples of saliva. The women were also asked to complete detailed questionnaires that aim to rate their feelings. As expected, the women in Hungary reported that they were less happy than the average, although there was not much difference between the women in the UK and the Netherlands.


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