Analyzing the Biology of Emotion

In Sara Rimer’s expository text “The Biology of Emotion- and What It May Teach Us about Helping People to Live Longer” (2011), she claims that the general population’s risks of severe illnesses can be reduced with a healthier and happier lifestyle. Rimer supported her thesis in an informative manner, giving examples of different studies performed and statistics collected, according to the issue at stake. Sara Rimer’s purpose of this article was to inform the general public of factors that severely increase health risks in order to give counter examples of factors to reduce these risks. Most likely, Rimer’s audience was targeted towards anyone, being that illnesses can affect anyone.

            This article was very informative, giving very thorough explanations and observations of studies done on the effects of happiness on a person’s life span. I was amazed by the fact that people with happier lifestyles are more likely to thrive longer than those without more negative lifestyles. However, I didn’t know that a person’s mood could affect their body as drastically as described in the health article. It’s always great to read up on an article that is subjected to the public, especially when it comes to one’s health.  I feel that more people should read these types of health articles, just to be aware of different factors of illnesses, and how to prevent them from occurring.

            Sara Rimer’s text mainly focused on a comparison and contrast of people who have happier lifestyles and those who don’t. Ultimately, those who do have happier lifestyles receive many benefits from positive factors surrounding them. Rimer states, “In a 2007 study that followed more than 6,000 men and women aged 25 to 74 for that emotional vitality-a sense of enthusiasm, of hopefulness, of engagement in life, and the ability to face life’s stresses with emotional balance-appears to reduce the risk of coronary heart-appears to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.”(84) Sara also provides different studies that help support her thesis. As stated on page 85, she states, “ In 1979, Lisa Berkman, director of the Harvard Center . . . Participants who reported fewer social ties at the beginning of the survey were more than twice as likely to die over the nine-year follow-up period, an effect unrelated to behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and physical activity.” For the public health’s sake, people should start thinking optimistically. There have been many studies that Rimer has demonstrated where people literally thrive longer than pessimistic views. As they say, life’s too short, and people only make life even shorter by obtaining negative mentalities.