Furthermore, there is a reverse relationship between happiness and health: our happiness has an impact on our health. A greater level of happiness predicts better future physical health. According to the World Happiness Report 2012:
The medical literature has found high correlations between various low well-being scores and subsequent coronary heart disease, strokes and length of life. Individuals with higher positive affect have better neuroendocrine, inflammatory and cardiovascular activity. Those with higher positive affect are less likely to catch a cold when exposed to a cold virus and recover faster if they do.
One example of these studies was conducted by Andrew Steptoe, professor of psychology and head of the research department of Behavioural Science and Health at the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at University College London (UCL), and Jane Wardle, professor in clinical psychology at the Health Behaviour Research Centre, also at UCL. Over a five-year period, they conducted a survey of the participants’ affective happiness, following about four thousand Brits aged between fifty-two and seventy-nine years old, divided into three groups, and asking them about their mood. It turned out that the happiest third had a 34 per cent lower mortality rate – even after controls undertaken for demographics and health status at the outset.
Life Expectancy in Years
Source: World Health Organization
Going by this, you would expect that the happy Danes enjoy the world’s longest life expectancy. But that is not the case. That honour goes to Japan. Denmark comes in at twenty-seventh, with Danes living a little over a year longer than the Americans but half a year less than the British. In addition, of all the Nordic populations, Danes live the shortest time.
In general, Danes smoke a lot, drink a lot and eat loads of meat and sugar, which is not compatible with a long and healthy life. Hygge – the cornerstone of Danish culture and the Danish way of life – is, in part, about indulging in cinnamon swirls and hot chocolate with whipped cream without ordering a side of guilt. Hygge may be good for happiness, but it is not necessarily good for health.
Last year, hygge became such a global phenomenon that it drove up demand for baked goods and affected the global spice market. ‘Since hygge took off, we’ve been selling a third more cakes and buns,’ Jonas Aurell from ScandiKitchen in London told the Financial Times. Meanwhile, the price of cinnamon swirled upwards by 20 per cent.
Of course, that raised the question, if the Danes binge on baked goods like the Fraggles down doozer sticks, why does Denmark rank 107th when it comes to obesity (compared with the UK at 43rd place and the US at 18th)?
Danes balance the cinnamon swirls with physical activity. Not every Dane is a fjord-swimming, cycling, cross-country-skiing aficionado, but 31 per cent of Danes are physically active at least five hours per week in their spare time, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. But Danes dislike the gym every bit as much as everyone else, so how do they get so much exercise?
TWO-WHEELED VIKINGS
Be careful when you walk the streets of Copenhagen for the first time. Walking on a cycle path in the Danish capital prompts the same reaction from locals as picnicking on the path for the Bull Run would during San Fermin in Pamplona.
In Copenhagen, 45 per cent of all commutes for work or education are by bike. If we look at the people working and living in Copenhagen, the number rises to 63 per cent of commutes. Oh, and most of them are not colourful ‘MAMILs’ (middle-aged men in Lycra). You are just cycling to work; it’s not the Tour de France. People wear stilettos, suits…and, last New Year’s Eve, I even cycled in my smoking jacket.
THE TWO-WHEELED TAKEOVER
The two-wheeled takeover of Copenhagen is quite a recent development. There are now more bikes than cars in the heart of the city. In fact, it seems the only thing more abundant than cyclists here is statistics about bikes. According to the Cycling Embassy of Denmark (yes, that is a thing):
Nine out of ten Danes own a bicycle
There are five times as many bikes as cars in Copenhagen 63 per cent of all members of the Danish Parliament cycle to work daily 58 per cent of children cycle to school in Copenhagen – the national average is 44 per cent of all children aged between ten and sixteen Copenhagen has more than 450 kilometres of bike paths 17 per cent of all trips in Denmark are made by bike (however, the share is much higher in concentrated urban areas like Copenhagen) 17 per cent of all families with kids have a cargo bike On average, Danes cycle 1.5 km a day
18,000 bikes are stolen every year in Copenhagen
75 per cent of cyclists cycle all year round
The cyclists of Copenhagen cycle more than 1.2 million kilometres every day
Nowhere are these statistics more evident than during the morning rush hour on N?rrebrogade – Copenhagen’s busiest bike corridor. That was my commute for about eight years, and I was joined every morning by students, businessmen and businesswomen, members of parliament and toddlers in training.
The reasons for the hordes of Vikings on two wheels are the good conditions provided for cyclists. If you visit Copenhagen, it’s easy to spot the lengths the city goes to to make them happy. There are tilted bins (so you can get rid of your to-go coffee cup while cycling at speed without missing the bin), footrests for cyclists when they are waiting at traffic lights – and if there has been a snowfall, bicycle lanes are cleared before those for cars.
Cyclists here are not treated like second-class citizens; they are treated not only with dignity but as kings and queens of the road.
HAPPINESS TIP:
GET ON YOUR BIKE
This weekend, dust off your bike and get outside.
You may have fond childhood memories of riding around on your bike. It was fun, right? It is time to rekindle that love – or maybe it’s time for you to fall in love with two wheels for the first time. If you’ve never tried cycling before, find a school or someone to teach you. If you have no bike, borrow one – or maybe you live in a city with a bike-sharing scheme. Figure out a way you can substitute driving or passive transportation with going by bike – or just go for a weekend tour by the beach, in the park, anywhere.
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EXTENDING YOUR LIFECYCLE
Our body mass index (BMI) is not a satisfactory measure of health, and, obviously, our health is about more than our weight – but here is the best news when it comes to cycling.
A new study by the University of Glasgow published in the British Medical Journal in 2017 found that cycling to work is associated with a 41 per cent lower risk of premature death, compared with a non-active commute to work. For instance, people who cycle to work have a 45 per cent lower risk of developing cancer and a 46 per cent lower risk of heart disease. The research is rigorous and used data from more than 260,000 participants in the UK Biobank, following them for five years. The new cases of cancer, heart attacks and deaths in that five-year period were assessed and cross-referenced to the participants’ mode of commuting. The results of this study are consistent with what Danish studies have discovered about the health benefits of cycling.