Aging
Risk takers are winners all the way
By IANS
Feb 22, 2006, 16:06

People who take risks usually win and could live longer, according to scientists.

Describing such people as high sensation seekers, psychologists say their brains are wired to require rewarding neurochemicals that burst forth when they hang on the edge of disaster.

There are also millions addicted to less glamorous risks - drinking and driving, illegal drugs, unprotected sex, even smoking and coffee drinking. In a society that's becoming more risk-averse, sensation seeking has been given a bad name.

But according to new evidence, taking risks helps and such people are less likely to get Parkinson's disease a disorder caused by the death of brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical that activates pleasure centres in the brain, reported online edition of 'The Sunday Times'.

The study published this week in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry showed that sensation seekers have a number of qualities that are firmly linked with healthier living.

They are likely to have more friends than cautious types and more likely to share their feelings with them. They also tend to be optimistic.

In recent years, such traits have been found to have clear health benefits. Men with AIDS who had a realistic idea of when they were likely to die, died an average of nine months sooner than those who were absurdly optimistic about their survival chances.

"Optimism seems actually to change the nervous system and boost the immune response, just as being gloomy depresses it," says Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at the University of California.

This is important because all sorts of cultural pressures combine to make our society increasingly risk-averse. A recent study from the University of Leeds found that children today have far less freedom to roam and have fewer adventures than children even ten years ago.

"They don't have the opportunity to learn to negotiate and deal with real issues," said lead researcher Colin Pooley. The result is that faced with assessing risks later in life, they tend not to do it very well.


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