Writing Affectionate Thoughts Leads to Lower Cholesterol

If you haven’t noticed, snarky, biting commentary is very popular. Hoardes of people flock to read Snarky Gossip and a myriad of other publications that serve up plenty of entertainment along with a dose of mean. While us readers may giggle at the nonsense, what is it doing to the writers of such rags?

Jeremy Dean over at PsyBlog shared results from a study of college students in which researchers found that those who were asked to write affectionate thoughts about someone in their lives for 20 minutes a session, three times over five weeks, experienced a reduction in their cholesterol levels. Their mean cholesterol levels dropped from 170 mg/dL to 159 mg/dL. And, those who chose to write directly to the person they were thinking of had a greater reduction in cholesterol.

I’d be curious to know if writing negative thoughts about someone increases a person’s cholesterol levels. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if blood pressure were affected. Who’s going to be the first snarky writer to sign up as an experimental subject?

NB: The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about how your emotions affect your health.

Tags: mind body connection, health, diseases, illness, medicine, cholesterol, writing, heart, heart disease