Is Your Personality Making You Sick?

Sniffling? Sneezing? Coughing? Blame your cold on your personality. At least that's the word from researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh who insist that happy, energetic people are more resistant to colds, while those who are depressed, nervous, or angry are three times more likely to get sick, report USA Today and ABCNews.com.

Of course colds are contagious and can infect anyone--no matter how happy his or her disposition. Americans get about 1 billion colds every year. But it seems that people who are extroverted, handle stress well, have a positive, sunny outlook on life, and have a complex social network are more resistant to cold germs. And when they do get a cold, the symptoms are markedly milder.

The study: During this 16-year study led by Carnegie-Mellon psychologist Sheldon Cohen, healthy volunteers were first given an emotional assessment to rate their personality for such qualities as pleased, relaxed, happy, or anxious, depressed, and hostile. Then their noses were squirted with a shot of rhinovirus, the germ that causes colds. The daring volunteers were quarantined for five days while researchers watched who got sick and who didn't.

The results:

· The more relaxed and contented a person is, the less likely he or she is to get sick.

· Introverted people are more likely to catch a cold than extroverted people.

· Your chances of getting a cold are greatly increased if you have serious stress caused by work or personal issues. The longer you live with intense stress, the more likely you are to catch a cold.

· People who have a number of roles in their life--spouse, parent, employee, friend, volunteer, club member, and more--boost their resistance to infection. This is a pretty potent protector: Those who had three or fewer roles in life were four times more likely to catch a cold than people who had six or more roles in life.

· People with negative personalities were also more likely to complain about their cold symptoms than people with happy dispositions.

Why does happiness keep us healthy? ABCNews.com puts it this way: In simple terms, when the brain is "happy," it sends messages to our organs that help keep the body healthy and sound. Happy people are also more likely to have good health habits, including diet, regular exercise, and sleep.

The study findings were published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.