And what has resulted from these efforts? Pretty much continual happiness! And it turns out that embracing joy and happiness in your life is important to overall health, which may have been battered by caring for someone with dementia. In a series of short recommendations about how to live a healthier life by Harvard Medical doctors in a recent issue of Newsweek, Dr. Harvey Simon suggested seeking and sharing joy. He wrote:
    “Patients (and their doctors) tend to overlook the impact of joy on health. It’s hard to know why: perhaps because there is no number to follow, we focus instead on ‘hard’ values for cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, PSA, etc. Those are all important – but so are relationships, personal fulfillment, and optimism. There are plenty of medical studies that link optimism, happiness, and joy with good health.”