Toronto—A pleasant attitude can do wonders for patients’ recovery, according to researchers who reviewed 16 studies that looked at patients’ attitudes toward health. The studies lasted 30 years and looked at patients’ attitudes after operation.

“In each case the better a patient’s expectations about how they would do after operation or some health procedure, the better they did,” said the author Donald Cole, of the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto.

“This mind-body connection that we have been toying with for the past couple of decades really does have hard science behind it. The result shows that the power of positive thinking is real,” Cole said.