Health and Happiness

In Happiness helps people stay healthy, New Scientist reports:

People who are happier in their daily lives have healthier levels of key body chemicals than those who muster few positive feelings, a new study suggests. This means happier people may have healthier hearts and cardiovascular systems, possibly cutting their risk of diseases like diabetes.

These kinds of stories annoy me. Reporters are so eager to get people to read their stories that they extrapolate a causal relationship from a mere correlation.

Scientist have discovered that happy people are healthier than unhappy people. Are people healthier because they are happy? Are people happier because they are healthy? Is there something other unidentified cause that results in people being both happy and healthy. However it turns out, I’m glad folks are investigating.