Positive thinking and happiness may protect against the disease, but traumatic events like divorce and bereavement may increase the chances of developing breast cancer, a research study has found.

Two or more negative life events increased the chances of the disease by 62 per cent, the study carried out in Israel said.

A team at the Ben-Gurion University of Negev, in Beer Sheva, Israel surveyed 255 breast cancer patients and 367 healthy women aged between 25 and 45 who were questioned about their life experiences.

Study leader Dr Ronit Peled, from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the university said: “Young women who have been exposed to a number of negative life events should be considered an ‘at-risk’ group for breast cancer and should be treated accordingly.”

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This study blows my mind.  You wouldn’t think that unhappiness would have such a drastic effect on your liklihood to develop such a specific disease, would you?

I believe that the medical community has been saying that stress and unhappiness can contribute to the development of all sorts of sicknesses for years, though.  I wonder, do happiness and unhappiness affect your potential to develop all diseases accross the board, or do they have a greater effect on breast cancer?

I also wonder, how does this affect a man’s chances of developing breast cancer?

-MJ

There are two guarantees in every person’s life: happiness and sadness. Although lost opportunities and mistaken expectations are often unpleasant to think and talk about, these experiences may impact personality development and overall happiness. A seven-year study conducted by Laura King, a researcher at the University of Missouri, indicates that individuals who take time to stop and think about their losses are more likely to mature and achieve a potentially more durable sense of happiness.

“People are generally in a hurry to be happy again, but they need to understand that it’s okay to feel bad and to feel bad for a while,” said King, who teaches psychology in the College of Arts and Science. “It’s natural to want to feel happy right after a loss or regrettable experience, but those who can examine ‘what might have been’ and be mindfully present to their negative feelings, are more likely to mature through that loss and might also obtain a different kind of happiness.”

 Drawing on samples of adults who have experienced significant life changing events, including parents of children with Down syndrome, women who have experienced divorce after marriages of more than 20 years, and gay men and lesbians, King examined the participants’ written accounts of their current best possible selves and unattainable best possible selves that they may have once cherished. Answering questions like, “How great would your life have been if only…,” King found that those who could acknowledge a past characterized by loss were more likely to show personality development over time.

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It seems that Bridget Jones has been ousted by a new breed of women who are happy being single and living alone.

“Freemales” is the label that has been given to the growing number of women content in their single life.

The latest research from the Office for National Statistics shows the number of women living alone, between the age of 25 and 44, has doubled in the past two decades.

And research also shows single women no longer feel they need to be in a relationship to be happy.

More and more women are shunning the idea of marriage in favour of living alone and increasing numbers of women are divorcing and staying single.

These single women are happy with their lives and content with the intimacy they get from other close relationships with family and friends.

In fact, their lives are so full with work and socialising they have little time to worry about finding Mr Right.

This just goes to show that it’s far more important to have stable and supportive relationships in your life, than it is to find a partner just for the sake of having one.

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