Overweight? Blame it on your cheery personality: How your character can affect your health | Mail Online

They may always have a half-full view of life, but optimists are also more likely to be overweight

Can your personality really reveal anything about your health?

It sounds like the kind of psychobabble you would find in a teen magazine— along with how to choose the man, job and dress to best match your character type.

But, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that certain characteristics may influence your health.

‘Personalities are a result of both genes and the environment,’ explains Dr Martin Hagger, a health psychologist at the University of Nottingham and Curtin University, Australia.

‘Knowing you fall into one specific camp doesn’t immediately mean you’re going to develop heart disease, for instance, but it should wake you up to the risk and, as a result, give you the opportunity to recognise and target the less healthy aspects of your character— such as smoking or drinking.’

Here, we take a light-hearted look at common personality types and the health conditions associated with them. 

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

Theymay always have a half-full view of life, but optimists are also more likely to be overweight. Researchers from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, and other centres, assessed obese men and women undergoing a six-month weight-loss programme involving counselling, nutrition and exercise.

The researchers found that those who were most positive lost the least weight. It’s thought that looking on the bright side led to patients not caring about their weight problem and always giving into temptation. 

Similarly, their confidence about their ability to defeat life’s difficulties and willingness, therefore, to take more risks might explain why happy types are also more likely todie young, found a major University of California study.

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