Gratitude Makes Your Heart Happy: The Body Lowers Inflammation Markers

When you're sincerely thankful in return for a kind gesture, not only do those around notice, but your body responds positively, too.

New findings presented by the American Psychological Association found that there's actually a positive chemical reaction that floods throughout, associated with better mood and self respect.

"We found that more gratitude in these patients was associated with better mood, better sleep, less fatigue and lower levels of inflammatory biomarkers related to cardiac health," Paul J. Mills, lead author of the study, said in a statement

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 186 men and women who had been diagnosed with asymptomatic heart failure for three months, consisting of patients who had developed structural heart disease; this meant that they had a heart attack that damaged their heart but they did not show symptoms of heart failure, including shortness of breath or fatigue. However, many of these patients are at a much higher risk of progressing to symptomatic heart failure.

Researchers discovered that higher gratitude helped to lower inflammation levels that are linked to heart failure and was linked to more self-efficacy, including higher sleep quality and better mood, overall. 

Furthermore, what seemed to surprise them the most was that gratitude fully or partially accounted for the beneficial effects of spiritual well-being.

"We found that spiritual well-being was associated with better mood and sleep, but it was the gratitude aspect of spirituality that accounted for those effects, not spirituality per se," Mills concluded. 

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