Here’s how volunteering can impact your health
Patients aren’t the only beneficiaries of the healing power of compassionate care. Research suggests volunteers themselves experience positive physiological benefits. Just thinking about helping others lights up the mesolimbic pathway in the brain — which is associated with rewards — flooding it with feel-good happiness chemicals. Those who volunteer regularly also tend to have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can be dangerous to one’s health when elevated.
In fact, a 2012 study
analyzing 3,376 volunteers from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study found
the risk of mortality decreased by about four years among people who
donated their time to help others or contribute to a cause important to
someone they care about. It didn’t matter how long they volunteered, so
long as the motivation and compassion were genuine. Read more
In collaboration with Dignity Health
