Members in the Media
From: CBS News

Cheerful tweets may mean a healthier heart

CBS News:

Crowd-sourcing through social media has quickly become one of the most powerful tools for public health. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Yelp have been used to track influenza, HIV, food poisoning and other ailments. Now, a new report shows that Twitter can also help predict rates of heart disease on a hyper-local level.

According to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Sciences, simply tracking the expression of negative emotions, including anger, stress and fatigue, may produce an accurate picture of which communities are most likely to have high incidences of heart disease.

Their snapshot (pictured above right) looks strikingly similar to the analysis of heart disease data by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A number of previous studies have shown emotions and behavior are closely tied to one’s risk for coronary heart disease. Expressions of happiness and joy have been linked to lower rates of heart attack.

Read the whole story: CBS News

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