Forget your troubles, come on, get happy!

A recent study suggests that happiness in older people may lead to longer lives. The five-year study provides data that supports the notion that happiness may not only improve the quality of one's life, but also the quantity of one's life.

The study found that:
* Older people who report feeling happy are up to 35% less likely to die.
* The presence of negative emotions may be less important than the absence of happiness when it comes to longevity of life.
* The regions of the brain that are involved in happiness are also integral to healthy blood-vessel function.

Older studies on happiness and longevity relied primarily on the participants' ability to recall their emotions during a specific period of time in the past. However, collecting data through recollections is not always accurate. To achieve greater accuracy in this most recent study, Andrew Steptoe, PhD (lead author of the study and a professor of psychology at University College London) and his colleagues asked more than 3,800 people to record their levels of happiness, anxiety, and other emotions at four specific times over the course of a single day.

The participants were between the ages of 52 and 79, and were divided into three groups according to how happy and positive they felt. Five years later, 7% of people in the least happy group had died, compared with just 4% in the happiest group, and 5% in the middle group.