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Reacting cheerfully to stressful situations may be the key to a long life, according to researchers.

While it may be easier said that done, scientists say a positive attitude in the face of a crisis could significantly reduce inflammation in the body, the Daily Mail reports.

The advice is based on a new study measuring how every day challenges can weaken the immune system - and it says women are particularly at risk.

The study found that it wasn't the amount of stress a person was dealt with each day that made the biggest impact, but how they dealt with the stress.

'Positive emotions, and how they can help people in the event of stress, have really been overlooked,' Nancy Sin, postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University.

In the short-term, with illness or exercise, the body experiences a high immune response to help repair itself.

However, in the long term, chronic inflammation can undermine health, and appears to play a role in obesity, heart disease and cancer.

While the study found that women are more susceptible to chronic inflammation, the scientists are still uncovering why this is the case.

As part of the study, a cross-sectional sample of 872 adults from the National Study of Daily Experiences reported daily stressors and emotional reactions for eight consecutive days.

Blood samples of participants were taken during a separate clinic visit and tested for inflammatory markers.

The volunteers were then interviewed by phone every day for eight consecutive days.

They were asked to rate their positive and negative emotions, as well as whether or not they encountered stressors.

This allowed researchers to determine a person's emotional response on days when they experience stressors, and compare it to days when they do not.

'We calculated reactivity scores to see how participants generally reacted to stressors,' Sin said. 'Then we used it to predict two markers of inflammation.'

They inflammation occured more often in people who were unable to brush stressful events. '

To our knowledge, this paper is the first to link biomarkers of inflammation with positive mood responses to stressors in everyday life,' said Jennifer Graham-Engeland, associate professor of biobehavioral health, Penn State.

The research follows similar advice given by Mayo Clinic scientist, Dr Amit Sood, who claims that one of the four steps to becoming happy and healthy is becoming emotionally tough.

'There are simply techniques that you need to repeat,' he said. 'For instance, just think, will this matter five years from now? If not then it's not worth your time.'