Be grateful for what you have, it might help you live longer – Brainerd Dispatch

Death may be inevitable, but health researchers are continuing to search for ways to delay it as long as possible, and their latest contender is gratitude: a free, painless, non-tasting, sweat-free treat.

A new study of nearly 50,000 older women has found that the more grateful you are, the less likely you are to die in the next three years.

Those of us who are naturally grateful will likely be pleased with these results, and those who aren't will be pleased to know that practicing gratitude can help us to feel more grateful and potentially reap the benefits of longer life.

“This is an interesting study,” said Joel Wong, a professor of counseling psychology at Indiana University who researches gratitude interventions and practices and was not involved in the study.

Evidence is mounting that gratitude has a range of benefits for mental and physical health. People who score higher on gratitude scales have been found to have better biomarkers of cardiovascular function, immune system inflammation, and cholesterol. They are also more likely to take their medications, exercise regularly, have healthy sleep habits, and eat a balanced diet.

Gratitude is also associated with a lower risk of depression, greater social support, and a greater sense of purpose in life, all of which contribute to longevity.

But this is the first time researchers have directly linked gratitude to a lower risk of early death, Wong and his colleagues said.

“While not surprising, it's always good to see empirical research supporting the idea that gratitude is not only good for our mental health, but also leads to longer life,” Wong said.

Ying Chen, an empirical research scientist at Harvard's Human Flourishing Program and leader of the study, said she was surprised that there was so little research on gratitude and mortality. So she and her colleagues turned to data from the Nurses' Health Study, which has tracked the health and habits of thousands of American women since 1976.

In 2016, those efforts included gauging nurses' feelings of gratitude by asking them to indicate on a 7-point scale how much they agreed or disagreed with six statements, such as, “There are many things in life to be grateful for,” and, “If I were to list everything I'm grateful for, it would be a very long list.”

A total of 49,275 women responded, and the researchers split them roughly evenly into three groups based on their gratitude scores. Compared to those with the lowest scores, those with the highest scores were younger, more likely to have a spouse or partner, more involved in social or religious groups, and generally in better health, among other differences.

The average age of nurses who answered questions about gratitude was 79, and 4,068 had died by the end of 2019. After accounting for a variety of factors, including median household income within a census tract, retirement status, and involvement in religious communities, Chen and his colleagues found that nurses who were most grateful were 29% less likely to die than those who were least grateful.

The team then dug deeper, taking into account a range of health issues, including a history of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.The most grateful women had a 27% lower risk of death than the least grateful women.

After the researchers took into account the effects of smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, body mass index and diet quality, the most grateful nurses' risk of death remained 21% lower.

Finally, Chen and her colleagues added measures of cognitive function, mental health, and psychological well-being. After accounting for these variables, nurses with the highest gratitude scores still had a 9% lower risk of death.

The findings were published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

While the study shows a clear link between gratitude and longevity, it doesn't prove that one causes the other. It's plausible that gratitude helps people live longer, but it's also possible that being healthy makes people feel more grateful, or that there's a third factor that the data didn't take into account that influences both.

Sonia Lyubomirsky, an social psychologist who studies gratitude at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study, said she suspects all three factors are at play.

Another limitation is that the study participants were all older women, 97% of whom were white. It's unclear whether the findings apply to more diverse populations, but “based on theory and research, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't apply,” Wong said.

The Harvard researchers point out that gratitude can have a downside: When gratitude is combined with a sense of indebtedness, it can undermine self-reliance and emphasize hierarchical relationships. Lyubomirsky adds that gratitude can make people feel like they're a burden to others, which is especially dangerous for people with suicidal depression.

But for the most part, gratitude is an emotion worth cultivating, Lyubomirsky says, and clinical trials have shown that it can be increased through simple interventions like keeping a gratitude journal or writing and handing over thank-you letters.

“Gratitude is a skill that can be learned,” she said.

And like diet and exercise, it appears to be a modifiable risk factor for improving health.

Lyubomirsky found that randomly selected teens who were asked to write thank-you letters to their parents, teachers and coaches ate more fruits and vegetables and cut down on junk and fast food — behavior that didn't occur in their control classmates. Perhaps reflecting on the time, money and other resources they'd spent made the teens more willing to protect those investments, he said.

More research is needed to see whether such interventions can extend people's lives, but Chen is optimistic.

“As evidence accumulates, we will have a better understanding of how to effectively increase gratitude and whether it can meaningfully improve people's long-term health and well-being,” she said.

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