Most people suspect that health and happiness are linked in some way. From the minor misery of flu to suffering associated with chronic illnesses like cancer and depression, it seems obvious, a truism.
Yet this insight afforded by common sense leads to questions that get more and more difficult the deeper one delves. Trying to make sense of these murky waters is a bit like navigating the marshes without Gollum.
For example, if health and happiness are connected, you might wonder whether happiness is a physical, emotional or mental state? How are these categories precisely defined and demarcated? What are the differences between physical and mental? What is consciousness anyway?
You see what a slippery, tricksy fellow philosophy can be. For those of you interested in the mind-body debate, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind.
More boggy questions follow. For example: does happiness lead to health or does health lead to happiness?
Depression is not a normal response to illness, but people with physical illnesses are more likely to suffer depression than people who are well. The proportion of people afflicted with depression varies depending on the type of illness:
- Heart attack 40%-65%
- Parkinson's Disease 40%
- Multiple sclerosis 40%
- Diabetes 25%
This could be due to a number of social factors, rather than the illness directly, such as coping with stress and changes in lifestyle or identity.
Conversely, happiness or peacefulness may well have a protective effect.
A small study published in 2003 found that test subjects who participated in a mindfulness meditation program had higher antibody levels than control subjects who didn't.
In the so-called Nun Study, diaries written in 1930 by 180 youthful nuns were analysed for emotional content and compared to longevity six decades later. Positive emotional content was strongly correlated with longer life. (NB correlation does not equal causality)
A relatively new area of science called psychoneuroimmunology studies the interactions between psychology, behaviour, the nervous system, the hormonal system, and the immune system.
It will be amusing if life coaches, scientists and yogis converge in their answers.
Of one thing I have no doubt - the findings of this research will be as complex as they will be fascinating.
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