Sunny dispositions can do the heart good, according to recent findings that were published in the journal Health Behavior and Policy Review.

The research, which was funded by National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Center for Research Resources, shows that people who find that the glass is half-full are twice as likely to have good cardiovascular health, compared to their 'glass half-empty' counterparts.

Northwestern University, Chapman University, Harvard University and Drexel University research fellows examined the relationship between optimism and cardiovascular health between 2002 and 2004, surveying more than 5,100 adults between the ages of 45 to 84. Researchers gauged participants' physical activity, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, body mass index, dietary intake, tobacco use and blood pressure, which are the same seven factors regarded by the American Health Association (AHA) to determine good heart health.

"Individuals with the highest levels of optimism have twice the odds of being in ideal cardiovascular health compared to their more pessimistic counterparts," said the study's lead author Rosalba Hernandez, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois, in a university news report. "This association remains significant, even after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and poor mental health."

Optimists were found to be more physically active, have healthier body mass indexes, were less likely to smoke, have significantly better blood sugar and better total cholesterol than their pessimistic counterparts, according to research that appeared in the January/February 2015 issue of Health Behavior and Policy Review.

Participants were given a rating of 0 (poor), 1 (intermediate) or 2 (ideal), which were calculated to come to a total cardiac health score; the higher the score, the better the heart health. And contributors were also asked to complete survey, physical health, optimism and mental health, while also detailing preexisting medical conditions like kidney disease, liver and arthritis. ScienceDaily reported that optimistic folks were 50 percent more likely to have an intermediate total health, and they're 76 percent more likely to have an ideal score.

The study sample was 38 percent white, 28 percent African-American, 22 percent Hispanic/Latino and 12 percent Chinese. And it was found that the connection between optimism and cardiovascular health was more pronounced when socio-demographic characteristics such as age, race and ethnicity, income and education status were factored into the equation.

"At the population level, even this moderate difference in cardiovascular health translates into a significant reduction in death rates," Hernandez said. "This evidence, which is hypothesized to occur through a biobehavioral mechanism, suggests that prevention strategies that target modification of psychological well-being -- e.g., optimism -- may be a potential avenue for AHA to reach its goal of improving Americans' cardiovascular health by 20 percent before 2020."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in every 4 deaths is due to heart disease, and more than half of heart disease deaths were men. Also, more than 20 percent of the mortality rates among whites, blacks and Latinos-- 25.1 percent whites, 24.5 percent African Americans and 20.8 percent among Hispanics--are due to heart disease. Heart disease continues to be the leading heart disease for people of most ethnicities in the United States.

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