Nature versus nurture - 2 Mar 2009

One of this morning's news items reports on research that suggests that unhappy children grow into unhealthy adults. There is a strong psychological component to illness, but one wonders which comes first in this case. Are unhappy children perhaps unhappy because they have a propensity to ill health? Or are they unhappy for other reasons and does this chronic unhappiness actually cause ill health later in life?

it's possible that we will never know - and then the other question that comes to mind is 'is there something we could do about this?' If we make an effort to make all unhappy children cheerful, will they all grow into healthy adults? How would you go about making unhappy children cheerful all the time?

There is research that suggests that people who suffer from depression and a generally negative outlook have a higher risk of cardiac disease. Perhaps this is all related in some way.

In my experience, cheerful people who suffer illness do not 'suffer' in the same way that less cheerful people do. They deal with the symptoms and get on with life, whereas someone of a less sanguine disposition dwells on the symptoms and consequently feels worse.

Perhaps we should all try a positive outlook as a way of staving off illness - be interesting to see how that might work as we come up to the cold and flu season.

On a different note, we have a new look to Bizcommunity! Many thanks indeed to the IT team who spent long, long hours putting all this together - sacrificing sleep and leisure time - but hopefully not their health!