Mental health can promote physical health, on the contrary, being in an unhealthy state will lead to some physical and mental diseases. It mainly includes two aspects:
One is emotional and physical health. As early as 2,000 years ago, ancient medical scientists in China discovered that there was an important relationship between people's emotions and health, and they believed that seven emotions-happiness, anger, worry, thinking, sadness, fear and shock-were the pathogenic factors of diseases. They summed up the saying that "excessive emotions lead to all diseases", and thought that excessive changes in people's emotions would lead to imbalance between Yin and Yang, disharmony between Qi and blood, obstruction of meridians and qi-flowing.
Secondly, personality and physical health. A person's personality reflects a person's psychological state, and psychological changes can be realized through the physiological functions and disease resistance of endocrine and immune mechanisms. Therefore, personality characteristics can not only be used as a pathogenic factor, but also become the basis of many diseases, and can change the course of diseases. Therefore, the ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates said: "It is more important to know what kind of people are sick than to know what kind of diseases a person has."
2. The influence of mental health on life expectancy
Many studies have found that people facing mental illness (such as schizophrenia or depression) live shorter lives than those with mental health. In fact, the report of the Mental Health Foundation has pointed out that schizophrenia will triple the risk of patients dying from respiratory diseases and triple the risk of dying from heart diseases. Depression increases a person's risk of dying from cancer by 50% and heart disease by 67%. From this perspective, mental health has a very important impact on life expectancy.
Not only that, researchers also found that optimistic beliefs can prolong life.
3. The power of positive emotions
According to a meta-analysis of 200 articles from Harvard University, optimism can promote cardiovascular health and slow down the development of diseases.
Author Julia Boehm said, "Being positive doesn't mean having no negative beliefs. We found that optimism, life satisfaction and happiness can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease regardless of age, socioeconomic status, smoking status or weight. "
Boehm also said that the most optimistic people have a 50% lower risk of cardiovascular disease for the first time than those who are not so optimistic.
Positive emotions are related to a person's mental state, and vice versa. Negative emotions are related to a person's poor health. Stress is a good example. Chronic stress will gradually wear away the body over time, and even short-term stress, such as temporary stomachache, may have an impact. The American Psychological Association (APA) reported. It has been found that negative emotions such as anger are related to heart attacks and other physical problems that may lead to death.