EPTOn June 04 2009 06:07 Foucault wrote:
Frits, also positive emotions and "happiness" works as a strong buffer against cardiovascular diseases, cancer and others kinds of illness. Both through a boost to the immune system that positive emotion and a sense of well-being contributes to, and through less negative stress/anxiety, negative emotional states that releases adrenalin and other catecholamines which can be damaging for the body in the long run if constantly activated.
What is "physical exercise" btw? Alot of those factors have statistical importance but not causal. Someone maybe doesn't work out at all during his/her spare time but has a physically demanding job. Someone else maybe doesn't eat breakfast (what time would that be btw?), but eats instead at 11, which maybe doesn't make any real difference in life expectancy.
Frits, also positive emotions and "happiness" works as a strong buffer against cardiovascular diseases, cancer and others kinds of illness. Both through a boost to the immune system that positive emotion and a sense of well-being contributes to, and through less negative stress/anxiety, negative emotional states that releases adrenalin and other catecholamines which can be damaging for the body in the long run if constantly activated.
What is "physical exercise" btw? Alot of those factors have statistical importance but not causal. Someone maybe doesn't work out at all during his/her spare time but has a physically demanding job. Someone else maybe doesn't eat breakfast (what time would that be btw?), but eats instead at 11, which maybe doesn't make any real difference in life expectancy.
Yes, chronic stress = bad. Short term stress is good (for the sake of goal accomplishment). Sadly, in modern society chronic stress is (becoming) much more prevalent. I wouldn't use the word happiness because it's pretty vague, not to mention hard to document. Take people who have an above average neurotic personality for example, they tend to report less happiness, but they could still experience as much 'happiness' as others.
Regarding the exercise: I'm not sure on on the details anymore, I picked the study of a powerpoint presentation my professor gave back in November. I think physical exercise means 30 minutes of walking/riding a bike or doing whatever each day, doesn't have to be very intense. And due to ethical issues it's not really possible to perform an experimental study about smoking. That's also why I mentioned the part about smoking being accompanied by other damaging factors, you're never 100% sure without an experimental setup. Due to randomization I wouldn't worry about things like physically demanding jobs etc. I don't think this creates a very large bias though, the experimenters probably thought of this as well.
About the cancer thing: Studies have shown that a positive attitude or emotions have 0 significant effect on it, not sure how you mean it effects cancer. Again, I'm just gonna assume you meant chronic stress or something more well defined.
edit: Actually I should've said: Efficacy doesn't affect the progress of cancer, which is what I meant, oops. I didn't mean emotion, not sure why I said it.
