Stay positive - it just might save your life. New research shows being a positive-thinking person can lead to protective benefits for the heart. The study found people with a positive look at life had a reduced risk for heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events.

But there's a distinction between being optimistic and being content. The researchers note that simply not being sad or depressed doesn't mean you're happy - the people in their study who had better heart health genuinely saw the world more positively.

"The absence of the negative is not the same thing as the presence of the positive," study author Julia Boehm, a research fellow in the department of society, human development, and health at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, told HealthPop.

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