June 2024—The Power of Optimism
Summer is trickling in with a hot start. Temperatures are soaring nationwide, and people are coping with sweltering, bright days and warmer than usual nights. This is a great time for reflection on the different aspects of life. People let their guards down, converse more, and unwind in tune with vacation and relaxation. Yet this may not be the same for all individuals; today's statistics show staggering mental health diseases that are slowly creeping into all age groups. What does this mean? A good scale to gauge this by is optimism—it seems to be dwindling at an alarming rate.
There does not seem to be an expectation for good, but rather for worse, and this in turn leads to worry, stress, anxiety, depression, overeating, chronic health problems, and on and on goes the list of maladies that follow the lack of expectation of a good outcome. As physicians, we know that optimism is everything for survival. When you take individuals coping and recovering from debilitating odds, the person with more optimism and expectation of good always does better. Why is this so? The science is clear: optimism is clearly associated with better survival outcomes and lower mortality rates among individuals. As humans, we are problem solvers, and we need to focus on the solution rather than the problem. This may involve restructuring our social groups to include people who have positive outlooks. It does matter who you hang out with, who you listen to, and who you live with; these are all interconnected with how you will feel at any time in the day. So the next time you feel down and depressed, try to catch the optimism bug from yourself through self-encouragement, listening to the right speakers, reading the right books, watching the right programs, or hanging out with the right people—this will go a long way toward your overall well-being.
This Month in the Kitchen, we will make a beautiful tropical fruit salad with a tangy dressing, and we will also focus on watermelons in our Ingredient Spotlight. In our Monthly Why section, we will focus on why the bioavailability of foods matters for your nutrient intake. As always, I wish that you keep your health in center focus and live long and strong!
