 It turns out that people who don’t sweat the small stuff end up remembering more of the small stuff well into old age.
A recent study in the journal Neurology concluded that people with a positive outlook may have a decreased chance of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s. Specifically, the researchers found that calm, relaxed people were 50 percent less likely to develop dementia than those who had what they referred to as increased levels of “neuroticism”. Being outgoing and active also decreased the risk, but having a calm and relaxed disposition was the common denominator regardless of one’s outgoingness or activity level.
Obviously this study does not clarify whether positive people are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s or whether the very early stages of Alzheimer’s can negatively impact one’s sense of well-being long before symptoms occur, but vast number of studies demonstrating the influence of a positive and relaxed attitude has on health, we would all do well to put a smile on our face and relax just a little bit more.
However, being happy doesn’t only affect us . . .
 Another recent study, this one in the British Medical Journal, showed that our happiness not only impacts those immediately around us, but it increases the likelihood of happiness in a friend living within a mile by 25 percent. But it doesn’t stop there.
The study went on to find that our own happiness not only increase the chances of happiness in an immediate friend, but it also increases the chances of happiness in a friend of the friend by 10 percent, and a friend of that friend by 5.6 percent. Did you just get that? Our happiness can spread outward through three levels of separation between people. People that we don’t even know.
I guess Louis Armstrong had it right when he sang, “When you’re smiling, keep on smiling, the whole world smiles with you.”
So next time you head home from work in a good mood, you not only increase the chances of making your spouse happy, but you also increase the likelihood of making your spouse’s friend happy, and your spouse’s friend’s friend happy. The study didn’t evaluate the effects of being unhappy, but our guess is that it has a similar effect.
While researchers continue looking for the cause and cure for everything from Alzheimer’s to heart disease, one of the easiest thing we can do is look, feel and act happy. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, but it’s well worth the effort. You’re not only improving your life, but you might be improving the lives of three other people you may not even know. What if everyone did that?
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Enjoy a happy and healthy month of September.
