One really happy news story this week:

Happy people are less likely to catch a cold than those that are unhappy or grumpy. No, I did not make this up. According to Reuters Health people that are cheerful this winter will be much healthier. Perhaps smiling in the face of colds makes them very upset, in turn causing them to march away and target frowny, unhappy people. The experiment consisted of exposing the cold or flu virus to healthy volunteers. Days later researchers were able to conclude that those with a sunny disposition were much less likely to fall ill than the “others”. Researchers are saying that the reasons are probably both subjective and objective saying that the objective is—in happiness boosting immune function and that the subjective is—in happy people being less troubled by a scratchy throat and runny nose.” They go on to say that the different people and attitudes seem to affect the virus in different ways and that when and IF happier became sick they interpreted their illnesses less severely. So if anyone is afraid of lurking flu’s or cold’s all you need to do is be happy!

Forget jackets (schmackets) and forget vitamins (bitamins), laugh, smile and be merry.