According to a new study published in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), optimism lowers the risks of Diabetes in menopausal women.

Among the factors that influence risks of type 2 diabetes, there are diet, physical activity, and weight, among others. These can be changed! However, we can do nothing about the other risk factors such as ethnicity, age, and genetic information. According to recent studies, the psychology of an individual can also influence diabetes risks.

In previous studies, the researchers found out that depression and stress can boost the risks of type 2 diabetes. But not many studies focused on the personality traits that are beneficial in keeping diabetes at bay. Thus, the new research centered on menopausal women’s risks of diabetes and how can personality traits influence them.

Optimism Lowers the Risks of Diabetes in Menopausal Women, New Study Reveals

Juhua Luo from the School of Public Health at Indiana University in Bloomington and his colleagues analyzed the data from more than 139,000 menopausal women who did not suffer from diabetes at the beginning of the study. During the 14-year-long follow-up, about 19,000 of those women developed type 2 diabetes.

According to the study, those women with a higher degree of optimism are by 12 percent less likely to develop diabetes in comparison with those menopausal women who were pessimistic during the research.

“Personality traits remain stable across one’s lifetime; therefore, women at higher risk for diabetes who have low optimism, high negativity, and hostility could have prevention strategies tailored to their personality types,” said Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, the director of the NAMS. “In addition to using personality traits to help us identify women at higher risk for developing diabetes, more individualized education and treatment strategies also should be used,” he added.

“Low optimism and high [negativity] and hostility were associated with increased risk of incident diabetes among postmenopausal women, independent of major health behaviors and depressive symptoms,” concluded Juhua Luo.

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