If someone you love or you are a “worry-wart”, reading the rest of this article may prevent several deadly diseases and add years to your life. Allow me to explain. Why some people are healthy and others get sick has been a researched and heavily debated topic for a long, long time. Some give almost all the credit to genes. Basically you are pre-programmed at birth. Mother nature has dealt you a certain “hand” and that’s it. You will either be healthy, or sick, and there is nothing much you can do about it. Let’s consider for example, the “cancer gene.” If cancer is “in your genes,” you’re doomed. If not, you’re lucky. Supporters of this philosophy commonly use this example as proof: One person is young, eats all the right food and exercises and still gets cancer or has a massive heart attack. Yet, someone else eats junk, smokes, drinks and never exercised a day in their life and lives to be 95. Funny thing is you often hear these people say, “You can walk out of your house and get hit by a bus tomorrow,” as an excuse to completely neglect their health and future. Others don’t give genes much credit. They say it’s ALL (or at least MOST) how you live your life and take care of yourself. And then there are those somewhere in between. To them, both genes and how you live your life are important factors. Their argument is that the young guy or gal that took care of himself or herself and STILL got sick would have gotten sick sooner. And, the 95-year-old may have lived even longer if he or she took care of himself or herself. Obviously, all this is something to think about. Genes obviously have SOMETHING to do with our potential. But by how much is it? And is it as limiting as many once thought? The simple fact that our average life span is much different today than it was 100 or even 50 years ago should tell you something. There are factors that affect our lifespan and help determine if we live those years healthy and happy or sick and miserable. According to an April 5, 2007 issue of Science Daily, there is a broad consensus that there are five basic personality traits. These five are: Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience. There are sub-categories – but these five are what makes us up. But here’s what’s really important: Two of these traits – emotional stability and conscientiousness appear to be directly linked to your health and how long you may live. How? In psychology, the lack of emotional stability is called “neuroticism.” In other words, it’s a person’s tendency towards “hand wringing and negative thinking.” It is believed by many that high levels of neuroticism are inherited and such people do not handle stress well. They are often moody, anxious and uncomfortable. Studies have also shown a correlation to increased mortality. So, if “neuroticism” is inherited and leads to health problems and increased mortality, are some people simply pre-programmed to be unhealthy and die young? That’s where a Purdue University psychologist comes into the picture. According to the April 5, 2007 issue of Science Daily: “Mroczek decided to explore this idea. Using a standard measure of neuroticism, he tracked more than 1,600 men over 12 years, recording not only how neurotic they were at the start, but also whether they got more or less neurotic over time. He also looked at mortality risk for these same men over an 18-year span. As reported in the May issue of Psychological Science, those who increased over time in neuroticism was a ticket to an early grave. In other words, these men–all middle age or older to begin with–did not grow old gracefully. They likely got more and more stressed, worried or fretful, and this downward spiral increased their risk for dying, mostly from cancer and heart disease. The good news is that men with a fretful temperament, if they managed for whatever reason to calm down a bit over time, had survival rates similar to those of emotionally stable men.” So what’s the big lesson here for you, your health, and your longevity? First, it seems pretty clear your attitude does a whole heck of a lot more than just affect your success in business! Several studies show the way you think can have a profound impact on how healthy or sick you are. Namely diseases like cancer and heart disease. How? We don’t think anybody knows 100% for sure. It makes sense that stress (and the way you handle it) produces chemicals that suppress the immune system. This will have countless detrimental effects like aging: on the outside as well as the inside. But the real point here is: WHO CARES? Who really cares exactly how all this works on the cellular level? The bottom line is: it happens. Negative thinking, a lot of it, over an extended period of time will probably age you, make you sick and take years off your life. And, an even more important point: Changing the way you think and handle stress can stop the process. In other words, being a natural born “worry-wart”… You can change the way you handle stress and reduce the negative effects. Or, at least that’s what the above-mentioned study shows. And it only makes sense. Have you ever taken a walk in the dark and had some loud noise scare you? What happened? Your eyes widened. Your heartbeat drastically increased. Your brain signaled your body to produce adrenalin and other “flight or fight” chemicals were dumped into your bloodstream. At that very moment, you were wide awake, stronger than usual and could run like an Olympic track star! But what happens shortly afterward? You crash… right? You come back down and feel exhausted. This, my friends, is a natural high and hangover. When you are constantly stressed and worry and don’t deal with it well… you will continually go through a similar reaction. Your body and mind basically go through the ringer. It just makes sense that if you learn how to deal with the stress more effectively – you will be healthier and lives longer. Common sense doesn’t always match up with scientific proof, but it seems to in this example. I know what you’re thinking. How do you learn to deal with stress if you are a natural born “worry-wart?” The first thing is to realize NOTHING is ever as good or bad as it seems. And always change the things you can and forget about the things you can’t. Besides that, routine exercise programs and meditation have both been show to reduce stress. Maybe if we start enjoying this wonderful life a little – it will get even better and we will get more of it!