AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It's that time of year when it's customary to be a little kinder - you know, do nice things for other people, blah, blah, blah. But research suggests those acts of kindness can bring real benefits to you as well. NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy explains.
MARIA GODOY, BYLINE: It might not surprise you to know that when we help others, it makes us feel good and improves our mental health. But there's also growing research that it helps our physical health too. Some of the most striking evidence comes from something called the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial. Older adults were randomly assigned to either volunteer at elementary schools or put on a waiting list. After two years, researchers found the volunteers had better brain function. Here's Tara Gruenewald. She's a health psychologist at Chapman University and one of the study researchers.
TARA GRUENEWALD: So for example, they didn't experience declines in memory and executive function like we saw in our control participants. And there were even changes in brain volume in areas of the brain that support these different cognitive processes.
GODOY: In other words, you could actually see the changes on a brain scan. Laura Kubzansky is a professor at Harvard. She studies the interplay between physical and mental health. She says researchers think there are probably several different ways in which volunteering and acts of kindness improve people's health. She says stress causes a cascade of reactions in your body that can drive up blood pressure and lead to other changes that ultimately increase the risk of cardiovascular events. Kubzansky says volunteering may help buffer that stress response.
LAURA KUBZANSKY: Volunteering or doing an act of kindness can distract you from some of the problems that you might be having. So you might be a little bit less reactive yourself, or it may help to give you more perspective on what your own problems are.
GODOY: It may also make you more physically active when you go out to help others and less lonely, which we also know is bad for health - especially as we age. Now, there's less evidence on the health benefits of helping others in younger people, but one study that really stands out involved high schoolers who were randomly assigned to volunteer for 10 weeks with elementary school kids. And these teens also saw health benefits. Here's Julia Boehm, a psychologist at Chapman University.
JULIA BOEHM: Those students who were engaged in volunteering activities with younger students showed healthier body mass index, healthier inflammatory markers and healthier total cholesterol.
GODOY: In other words, when compared to the students who didn't volunteer, these teens had signs of better heart and metabolic health. And there's also evidence in adults linking these kinds of helping behaviors to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Tara Gruenewald says when we engage in behaviors that aim to help others, we really can't go wrong.
GRUENEWALD: I really encourage folks to look for these, what I like to call, win-win situations in the world. You know, at the very least, we'll make the world a little bit better place for many others in it, and we might just make it a little bit better for ourselves.
GODOY: Something to ponder as we set resolutions for the new year. Maria Godoy, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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