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The benefits, joys of giving go beyond the receiver
Studies show helping others good for physical, mental well-being
By AMY NEFF ROTH
healthy living
Santa may not eat well or stay fit, and he may smoke a pipe. But he does one thing right when it comes to his health.
He helps strangers. Maybe that's why he's so old.
A growing number of studies shows that altruism - most often in the form of volunteering and helping others - is good for you. Good works can, under certain circumstances, relieve stress, reduce depression, boost the immune system, pump up your self-esteem, alleviate chronic pain and help you live longer. Ho, ho, hoooooo!
"(Volunteering) has you focus outside of yourself and take your mind off your own everyday pressures and stress," said Jackie Michel, a psychotherapist and executive coach in Clinton. "So that, in and of itself, has a healing effect. And I think another thing is it expands people's sense of self-confidence and experience of making a difference to somebody else. ... I think probably one of the most fundamental things everybody wants is to have a sense that they make a difference."
In fact, some experts believe that helping others may be as fundamental to well-being as exercise, good nutrition and not smoking.
Profile of a volunteer
Name: Julie Lindig
Neighborhood: North Utica
Age: 37
Volunteer work:
No longer in need of dialysis, continues to visit with patients as they have dialysis after undergoing her second kidney transplant three years ago.
Award:
Last month named one of two Community Angels by the Family Advocacy Center
Why she does it:
She used to go for dialysis three days a week. "Those people were really my family between the nurses and the families out in the waiting rooms and the patients. ... I don't go out of my way to do anything different than I would."
How it helps:
"They like to see me because a lot of them won't sign up to get on the transplant list, and then they see me, and they're like, 'Wow, her life has really changed. ... I'm going to sign up now.'"
Biggest challenge:
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997.She is not visiting now because she lost her hair in her latest round of chemotherapy and doesn't want to scare those she is helping. "There's so many hills and I keep climbing them. I don't know where I get my inner strength, but I do. I just keep on going."
How it helps her:
"It does give you a, I don't know how to say it, maybe like an inner strength or an inner peace. I don't even realize that I do it." |
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An overview
Here's, in brief, what a few studies have found over the years:
ä Volunteering regularly and enjoying it reduced stress and stress-related illnesses.
- Older adults who volunteered 40 hours or less one year were less likely to die over the next 7½ years than seniors who didn't volunteer.
- Retirees who volunteered or participated in community organizations experienced significantly higher levels of psychological and physical well-being.
- Patients with chronic pain suffered less pain, depression and disability after volunteering.
- Women who volunteered functioned better years later.
- Among seniors, volunteers were less likely to die within a given time frame.
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Volunteering lowered depression rates among adults 65 and older.
- Volunteers appeared to be happier, healthier and less depressed than others.
- Volunteering boosted self-esteem, energy and a sense of mastery over life, particularly in later midlife.
- Seniors who supported others by doing such things as talking, running errands and doing housework were less than half as likely to die in the next five years as those who provided no support.
Back in 1988, lawyer Allan Luks surveyed 3,300 volunteers across the country and found that 95 percent of them experienced what researchers dubbed "helper's high," a rush of endorphins and other feel-good chemicals similar to a "runner's high."
"When people did continuous helping - which most people don't do - of an average of about an hour a week, (when they had) personal contact with someone they were helping, (when they helped) strangers rather than family or friends, they experienced this feel-good sensation," Luks said. "The research seems to say it's like meditation. You're not focusing on yourself. You're focusing on something else." |
