It starts with a smile
We’ve all heard the charming tales of patients making miraculous medical recoveries by simply keeping a positive mentality, despite their unfortunate circumstances. The stories are so charming, they almost seem unbelievable. How could it be possible that a patient’s stage 3 lung cancer could magically be cured by happy thoughts? How am I, a science-based pre-medical student, supposed to believe in something so abstract?
Being a devout believer of science, I am comforted by facts. I’m overjoyed by pie graphs and box plots, tables and figures, research findings printed in credible journal publications. These things give me a sense of security, and let me know that I can trust the information at hand. So, you can imagine my surprise when I was scanning over potential blog topics for this week’s post and I stumbled across a medically-acclaimed article published by the American College of Cardiology, claiming the medical benefits of smiling on the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease.
Researchers from the University of Kansas looked at the biochemical effects that smiling has on the heart. They compared two groups of people undergoing stressful stimuli; one group was asked to smile during the exercise, while the other was asked not to make any facial expression. What they found was incredible. By smiling, regardless of the genuity of the smile, these subjects were showing decreased blood pressure, reduced heart rate, and diminished release of stress hormones. All of these effects had a similar cardiac outcome: lessening the pressure put on the heart to perform. These results are commonly known to improve the heart’s condition, allowing the heart work without overworking. Sarah Pressman, the lead researcher involved in this study, explained these findings: “It’s not just that our brains are happy and make us smile, it can also be the opposite; we feel the smile and become happy. If you’re happy, you perceive stress differently and feel less threatened.” This explanation shows the bilateral interaction between emotional and biological systems in the body.
By decreasing heart rate, blood cholesterol, and stress levels, the heart is able to settle into a more relaxed state, in which it can beat without being forced to beat faster. With this new onset relaxation, these subjects were unknowingly decreasing their chances of developing heart disease in the future. For the subjects who had already been diagnosed with CHD, the decrease in these 3 factors were seen to have beneficial impacts on the already existing symptoms. I can confidently admit that my opinions have been swayed.
Happy thoughts really can save the world, one heart at a time.
