Check out the article published in Science Daily, titled “Positive Feelings May Help Protect Cardiovascular Health“.
From that article: A large review of scientific studies, published in Psychological Bulletin by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, revealed that positive psychological well-being appears to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events. “The absence of the negative is not the same thing as the presence of the positive. We found that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness are associated with reduced risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease] regardless of such factors as a person’s age, socioeconomic status, smoking status, or body weight… For example, the most optimistic individuals had an approximately 50% reduced risk of experiencing an initial cardiovascular event compared to their less optimistic peers” said lead author Julia Boehm.
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