Want to live longer and be healthier? Just smile!

Here's some good news. According to a study by Mayo Clinic researchers, an optimistic outlook on life could result in a longer and healthier life.

The researchers, who just concluded a 30-year study, found that the pessimistic group of patients had a 19% increase in the risk of death when comparing their expected life span with their actual life.

The report of the results were published in the Feb. 2000 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

"It confirmed our common-sense belief," said Toshihiko Maruta, M.D., a Mayo Clinic psychiatrist and lead author of the study. "It tells us that mind and body are linked and that attitude has an impact on the final outcome, death."

Mayo researchers surveyed patients in 1994 who had taken the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) at Mayo Clinic between 1962 and 1965.

The test has an Optimism-Pessimism scale that categorizes people as either optimists, pessimists or mixed based on how they answer certain questions.

By identifying which patients were alive 30 years later, the researchers were able to study pessimism as a risk factor for early death.

The researchers compared the expected life span with actual survival rates and found that the optimistic group's observed survival was significantly better than expected. And they found a 19% increase in risk of death among the pessimistic group. Age and sex were factored into the results.

The researchers said they could not definitively explain how pessimism acts as a risk factor for early death. It could be through the mind. Optimists are less likely to develop depression and learned helplessness.

The best news of all is that there's still hope for pessimists because they can change.

In an accompanying editorial, Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, stated, "Pessimism is identifiable early in life and changeable."