[NormsRevenge]

Bah Humbug!

[kinoxi]

Maybe they just think they have longer lives.

[Charles Henrickson]

Dang! Just my luck, now I have to live longer.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I was about to write that same thing when I saw this thread ! :-P

[Charles Henrickson]

If pessimism is a risk factor for premature death, that begs the question of whether anything can be done about it.

No, nothing, I'm afraid.

[jazusamo]

I'm bookmarking this and saving it for all the Bah Humbuggers. :-)

Merry Christmas!

[Solamente]

As bleak as my life has been, I wouldn't want to be anybody else for anything!

[Larry Lucido]

I'd be optimistic too, if I knew I was gonna live longer.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

They also say that conservatives are happier than liberals, and we have more kids than they do. No wonder they're so bad-tempered...

[berdie]

Is there such a thing as a positive realist..of course there is!!

[truth_seeker]

I believe twelve step programs have the potential to improve one's outlook on life. Such programs are based in religion (spirituality) and psychology.

I suspect the study could reveal a further correlation: that optimistic people are more likely to believe in God (higher power).

Hence optimists don't feel they alone carry the weight of the world. That is God's job.

Pessimists perhaps feel a personal responsibility for the bleak world they see, and absent God they see no hope.

My hypothesis is that spiritual people are most optimistic and live longer! Yet even if the DON'T live longer, they live more happily!

[doug from upland]

Judging by this report, the DUmmies should live to what, about 105?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

You will live forever, Suzy Sunshine.

[onyx]

Thos does not bode well for democrats....

[Mo1]

Pessimists, in contrast, take such events to heart, often blaming themselves and believing that the bad times will last forever.

Sure sounds like my mother in-law

Who has very high blood pressure from worrying about every damn thing that happens or doesn't happen

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament, it is possible to be both.
How?
By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can't avoid
This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the out come.

Robert Heinlein

[Shimmer128]

I'm fairly optimistic. Hopeful too. All the way to infinity.

[caveat emptor]

Bah Humbug!

You may be partly right. Here's a couple of lines from the Wikipedia entry on Norman Cousins.

"Told that he had little chance of surviving (an unknown, deadly condition), Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."

The Vitamin C was Sodium Ascorbate, administered IV to the tune of 25 grams (may not be exact figure) per day. That story can be found in "Anatomy of an Ilness". That was done under the care of his doctor in a hotel room - the hospital had given up on him.

"Cousins also served as Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities for the School of Medicine at the University of California, where he did research on the biochemistry of human emotions, which he long-believed were the key to human beings’ success in fighting illness"(Wiki again), and wrote a book about that called "Head First: The Biology of Hope". In that book he made no mention of Vit C, an omission that is odd at best, since he did talk about his own experiences with laughter.

[martin_fierro]

My Optimist lived to 102.

[larryjohnson]

college freshmen in '60s ??

[GOP Poet]

Just another thing for a pessimist to be pessimistic about :-(.

Merry Christmas all! And as an optimist I wish all a very, special new year with a multitude of blessings because of course they are coming. They always do. :-).