A latest research has been conducted on better understanding the association between health and emotions. This research reveals that positive emotions are very essential for maintaining a healthy physical health. This is mainly essential for those people who are financially poor. This research was jointly conducted by the University of Kansas and Gallup.
The research findings were based on the data withdrawn from the Gallup World Poll. The research was conducted on more than 150,000 adults. The participants were asked questions regarding whether their basic necessities, like food, shelter and personal safety, were adequately fulfilled. They even reported on various emotions like sadness, happiness, worry, etc. They expressed their physical health problems like tiredness, pain, etc. as well.
Sarah Pressman, assistant professor of psychology at University of Kansas and a Gallup senior research associate, says that, “We’ve known for a while now that emotions play a critical role in physical health. But until recently, most of this research was conducted only in industrialized countries. So we couldn’t know whether feelings like happiness or sadness matter to the health of people who have more pressing concerns — like getting enough to eat or finding shelter. But now we do.â€
Pressman states that positive emotions have a positive effect on the physical health even with the un-fulfillment of basic needs. Similarly negative emotions may have a negative effect on the physical health. It was noticed that even in the absence of adequate basic requirements like food and shelter; positive emotions were shown to have a positive effect on health.
The researchers were astonished to discover that the link between emotion and physical health was greater than the association between health and basic human requirements like food. The research found that such a link was the strongest in the poorest countries surveyed.
Their findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago.