Some call me unrealistic. One student even criticized me for smiling all the time. I usually laugh because things are good - and getting better. Dark Outlook on Life Tied, Again, to Worse Health.

This is not the first study to demonstrate the health benefits of abandoning pessimistic opinions: over the past 25 years, researchers have shown that pessimists are more likely than others to have poor physical health, depression, impaired immune systems and to seek medical and mental healthcare services.

The current study is the second in a series, the first of which found that pessimists may have shorter life spans than their more positive peers.

Maruta and his colleagues base their findings on personality evaluations gathered from 447 people between 1962 and 1965, when they visited the Mayo Clinic for general medical care. The investigators re-contacted the patients 30 years later and asked them how healthy they were.

Based on the initial personality evaluations, Maruta and his team report in the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 101 of the patients were classified as optimistic, 74 were pessimistic, and 272 had a mix of pessimistic and optimistic outlooks toward life.

Comparing those findings to the patients' perceptions of their health 30 years later, the researchers found that patients who appeared pessimistic had lower ratings in all tested areas of health than both optimistic patients and those who exhibited a mix of attitudes. The test of patients' health included questions about physical functioning, pain, vitality, limitations and mental health.