Gratefulness!

July 27th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Besides good genes, good exercise, good eating, good health care, good sleep, etc., here’s another candidate that helps prolong life: gratefulness.

So claimeth authors from Harvard U. and the University of British Columbia in “Gratitude and Mortality Among Older US Female Nurses,” published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Psychiatry.

They surveyed 49,275 “older” women (mean age 79 ± 6 years), all nurses in the USA, between 2016 and 2019, employing a “6-Item Gratitude Questionnaire,” that had these items they had to score:

1. I have so much in life to be thankful for.
2. If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.
3. When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for.
4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people.
5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events, and situations that
   have been part of my life history.
6. Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone.

Based on these “gratitude scores”, the researchers divided them into three roughly equal groups based on their gratitude scores. And the findings?

In this cohort study of older US female nurses, experiencing more grateful affect was associated with lower mortality. Individuals in the highest tertile of gratitude, compared with the lowest tertile, had a 9% lower hazard of deaths from any cause, after accounting for baseline sociodemographic characteristics, social participation, religious involvement, physical health, lifestyle factors, cognitive function, and mental health.”

Yup, they lowered their chances of dying by about 10% over a period of 3 years! (This is after accounting for health issues, smoking and drinking and diet and exercise habits, and also cognitive and psychological well-being.)

Joel Wong, a professor of counseling psychology at the University of Indiana who researches “gratitude interventions” (and was not involved in the study):

Exciting! And the first time researchers have directly linked gratitude to a lower risk of earlier death. It’s not surprising, but it’s always good to see empirical research supporting the idea that gratitude is not only good for your mental health but also for living a longer life.”

Correlation, yes (gratitude goes with longer life). Causation, not sure (gratitude causes longer life?). But still …

Lead author Dr. Ying Chen remarked:

As the evidence accumulates, we’ll have a better understanding of how to effectively enhance gratitude and whether it can meaningfully improve people’s long-term health and well-being.”

So there you go: extend your life without breaking a sweat, eating unappetizing stuff, and doing the hamster thing on a treadmill.

But don’t forget to thank the One who matters the most!

In God—I praise [His] word;
in Yahweh—I praise [His] word.
In God I have trusted,
I shall not be afraid:
what can a human do to me?
Upon me, God, [are] Your vows;
I will fulfill [my] thank offerings to You.
For You have rescued my soul from death.
Psalm 56:10–12

God himself declared:

“The one who sacrifices a thank-offering glorifies Me …
I shall show him the deliverance of God.”
Psalm 50:23

So …

Bless Yahweh, my soul,
and all that is within me—His holy name.
Bless Yahweh, my soul,
and do not forget all His bestowments—
the One who pardons all your iniquities,
the One who heals all your diseases,
the One who redeems your life from the grave,
the One who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion,
the One who satiates your life with good.
Psalm 103:1–5

SOURCE: StudyFinds; JAMA: Psychiatry