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.”

Click here for the full article.

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

Cornell University of the United States studied happiness among silver and bronze medalists in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Using TV relay broadcasts, the researchers measured the happiness of individual medalists on a scale of one to 10 when their final scores were announced. The average happiness index of a silver medalist was 4.8, while that of a bronze medalist was 7.1. This means third-place finishers were happier than runners-up. At the award ceremony, the happiness index of the bronze winner was 5.7 as opposed to 4.3 for the silver medalist. What explains this?

The answer lies in different standards. While a silver medalist aims for the gold, a bronze medalist has no such pressure. He or she tends to feel grateful and joy over getting a medal. Satisfaction based on achievement is relative, and can be called the relativity principle of happiness. Our ancestors seem familiar with this notion, with a saying that goes, “A person should know one’s place. Living not in accordance with one’s means only sows the seed of unhappiness.”

Click here for the full article.

I can totally empathize with being less satistfied at winning 2nd place than 3rd, 4th, or even 5th.  Almost succeeding at something sometimes feels, in my opinion, worse than obvious failure.

If I know I have a slim chance of succeeding at something, I can allow myself to relax and enjoy the experience, feeling pleasantly surprised at any resulting success.   I find myself far less able to appreciate a competition for its own sake when I can see perfection lying just beyond my grasp.  Then I can’t help but think, “If only I had done this, that, or the other, I could have come out on top at the end of all this.”  I try not to fall into this negative thought pattern, but it is difficult to avoid.

-MJ

The primary cause of unhappiness in Britain is not lack of material wealth but a loss of faith in God and religion, a group of MPs says today. In a new report on wellbeing, a crossparty group of Christian MPs echoes concerns raised by the Conservative leader, David Cameron, who has emphasised repeatedly the importance of action to improve society’s sense of “wellbeing”. They say that the Christian voice is not being respected properly because it comes across too often as “negative”.

Steve Webb, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: “Over the years, many of us who are MPs rooted in the Christian community have been concerned that our voice in the public square can come across as being too negative.

“We are easily identified by what we are against, but less clear what we are for.” He said that, despite material wealth, society lacked a sense of wellbeing. He argued that this had been caused by the erosion of religious values.

Click here for the full article.