Can happiness reduce the chance of breast cancer among women?

One may not be able to prevent the breast cancer, but one thing is for sure that one can prevent the chances of developing breast cancer by just being happy and with positive thinking. A new study has thrown light into this facet of happiness and positive thinking. The study states that, happiness and positive thinking can reduce the chances of woman developing breast cancer by a quarter. Some of the traumatic events like divorce and bereavement may have adverse effect on a woman’s health.

Thus experiencing more than one ruthless or moderate life event can increase the risk of breast cancer among the females, especially among younger woman. While on the other hand the general feeling of optimism and happiness can play a protecting role against this dreadful disease. It has been seen that young woman are more and more exposed to numerous negative events in their life. These women are at risk and may come under the group of woman with breast cancer sooner or later. They have to be treated accordingly. The lead researcher Ronit Peled quoted to the British media.

The study was done by Dr. Peled along with his colleagues at the Ben-Gurion University of Negevin in Israel. They have based their findings on the analysis that was done on a group of woman. The study was done in a group composed of two types of women. The first group consisted of 255 females having breast cancer, while the other group had 367 healthy ladies. They were in the age group of 25-45 yrs.

The group that consisted of breast cancer were asked the personal details of loss tragedies and other losses, like divorce or partners death, loss of job etc. their answers were compared with the women of the healthy group. The analysis showed a clear link between outlook and risk of breast cancer, were as the optimists had 25% less chances of developing the disease.

The woman who had two or more traumatic events in their life had 62% of greater risk. “It was found that the feelings of happiness and optimism had a “protective effect””, according to the researchers. The study was published in the Cancer journal.