Smile now, smile later, smile often! From Dr. Scheier

Great news to report on this Good Friday! People with big, happy smiles may actually out-live those who don’t! That, according to a recent study conducted at Wayne State University.

Dr. Scheier and team knew that positive emotion has been linked to both physical and mental health, but researchers at the university did something interesting for their study: they used information from the Baseball Register to look at smiles of 230 players who began their baseball careers prior to 1950 and studied their smile intensity (wide smile, no smile or partial smile).

The researchers then took into account other factors associated with life longevity, such as body mass index, career length and, yes, even college attendance. They found that players who weren't smiling in the photos died at the average age of 72.9 years. Players with partial smiles lived to be 75. The ballplayers with big, wide smiles, however, lived on average to be 79.9 years old!

Our take-away from the new study? Smile now, smile often and you might just live longer! Have you perfected your smile by visiting Mitchell D. Scheier and Associates lately? If not, give us a call and have a great weekend!