Does Happiness Impact Your Immune System?
Happiness has become a significant topic in public policy, economics, and psychology over the past decade due to its impact on our mental and physical well-being. Furthermore, the study of happiness has become a recognized subdiscipline represented in academic journals and postgraduate degrees from universities in the United States and other countries. Numerous general interest books by economists and psychologists have extolled the value of happiness, resulting in “life coaching for happiness” becoming a thriving industry.
Much of the research on psychological well-being is related to depression and stress with ill health. Specifically, many longitudinal studies have documented an association between these negative psychological states and coronary heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. More recently, research has changed its focus, indicating that the absence of negative states such as depression, stress, and anxiety does not mean a person is happy. For example, one might be in an emotionally neutral state and not experiencing distress, but not feeling happy either. Additionally, our moods may fluctuate rapidly, with many of our experiences feeling bittersweet, generating positive and negative emotions.
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Even taking negative emotions into account, the linkage between happiness and health is distinctive (Steptoe, 2019). Studies over two decades show that happiness affects our physical health in the following ways:
Better cardiovascular health (Boehm et al., 2012)
Better immune functioning (Marsland et al., 2006)
Ability to engage in healthier routine behaviors (Boehm et al., 2012)
Live longer lives (Diener & Chan, 2011).
The good news is that we can improve our level of happiness with simple positive practices. To get you to enhance your happiness level, here are a couple of brief audio practices.
References
Boehm, J. K., Vie, L. L., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012). The promise of well-being interventions for improving health risk behaviors. Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports, 6, 511–519. doi:10.1007/s12170-012-0273-x
Diener, E., & Chan, M. Y. (2011). Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3, 1–43. doi:10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01045.x
Kushlev, K., Heintzelman, S. J., Lutes, L. D., Wirtz, D., Kanippayoor, J. M., Leitner, D., & Diener, E. (2020). Does happiness improve health? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Psychological Science, 31(7), 807-821Kushle
Marsland, A. L., Cohen, S., Rabin, B. S., & Manuck, S. B. (2006). Trait positive affect and antibody response to hepatitis B vaccination. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 20, 261–269. doi:10.1016/J.BBI.2005.08.009
Steptoe, A. (2019). Happiness and health. Annu Rev Public Health, 40(1), 339-359.
Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The How of happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. Penguin.
Talarowska, M., Kowalczyk, M., Maes, M., Carvalho, A., Su, K. P., Szemraj, J., & Gałecki, P. (2019). Immune to happiness–inflammatory process indicators and depressive personality traits. Archives of medical science, 15(1).