A study published in the January 2013 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine found that optimistic people have higher levels of antioxidants in their blood. Carotenoids, a class of antioxidants, were anywhere from 3-13% higher, depending on age group, in optimistic people. Optimistic people tended to eat better and take better care of themselves overall. However, that alone did not explain all of the difference. Also, those with higher socioeconomic status tended to score high on optimism. What was interesting about this study is that rather than studying depressed people as is usually done, the researchers decided to study optimistic people and see how they are different. This was a cross-sectional study, so one can really only detect an association and not causation.
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