Effects of good deeds on our mental and physical health and well being

Effects of good deeds on our mental and physical health and well being

Have you ever felt a rush after doing a good deed? Ever noticed you were more relaxed after a day of volunteering? Did you ever feel motivated to do good after thinking about the last time you helped someone? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, there’s a good explanation for why - it’s called science.

International Good Deeds Day is almost upon us and it’s time to start rallying your friends, family, coworkers, and peers to join this global movement of doing good on April 10, 2016. If your fellow good doers are still in need of some convincing, here are seven scientific facts about the benefits of doing good to share with them.

1. DOING GOOD DECREASES STRESS

According to a 2013 study examining the relationship between volunteering and hypertension, giving back can have a significant impact on blood pressure. Researchers found that adults over 50 who volunteered about four hours a week were 40 percent less likely than non-volunteers to have developed hypertension four years later.

Additionally, being generous can have the same effect, according to a 2010 study, which found that the less money people gave away, the higher their cortisol levels.

2. DOING GOOD INCREASES LIFE-EXPECTANCY

Yes, it’s true. Researchers from the University of Buffalo found a link between giving, unselfishness and a lower risk of early death. The findings show that subjects who provided tangible assistance to friends or family members (running errands, helping with child care, etc.), reported less stressful events and, consequently, had reduced mortality. In other words, “helping others reduced mortality specifically by buffering the association between stress and mortality.”

3. DOING GOOD MAKES US FEEL BETTER

Ever felt a sort of “rush” after performing a good deed? That sensation is known as ‘helper’s high’ and is produced when your brain releases endorphins, the feel-good chemicals of the brain. When you do something good for someone else, your brain’s pleasure centers light up, releasing endorphin and producing this high. Not to mention, doing good has also been known to generate feelings of satisfaction and gratitude.

4. DOING GOOD MAKES US HAPPIER AT WORK

According to a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, altruists in the office are more likely to be committed to their work and less likely to quit their jobs. The researchers also found that individuals in their mid-30s who rated helping others in their work as important, reported they were happier with their life when surveyed 30 years later.
Overall, the study came to an important conclusion about office altruism: those who help others are happier at work than those who don’t prioritize helping others.

5. DOING GOOD PROMOTES MENTAL HEALTH

The results are in! After an extensive review of 40 studies on the effect of volunteering on general health and happiness, the BMC Public Health journal has concluded that volunteering is also good for mental health. The review found that - along with improved well-being and life satisfaction – volunteering is also linked to decreased depression.

6. DOING GOOD LEADS TO HAPPINESS

"People who engage in kind acts become happier over time.” It’s that simple, according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside. Lyubomirsky, who has studied happiness for over 20 years, found that performing positive acts once a week led to the most happiness.
In addition, Researcher Stephen Post of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found that when we give of ourselves, everything from life satisfaction to self-realization and physical health is significantly improved.

7. DOING GOOD WILL MOTIVATE YOU TO DO GOOD AGAIN

A 2012 study published in Psychological Science found that thinking about times you’ve helped others will make you want to help others again. The research found that reflecting on your past good deeds makes you feel selfless and want to help more, as compared to reflecting on the times others have helped you. In other words, thinking about what you’ve given others – and not only what you’ve received - will motivate you to do good again and again.
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Doing good does you good

It’s often said that it’s better to give than receive but did you know that this is actually backed up by research?

While many of us feel too stressed and busy to worry about helping others, or say we’ll focus on doing good deeds when we have more ‘spare time’, evidence shows that helping others is actually beneficial for your own mental health and wellbeing. It can help reduce stress, improve your emotional wellbeing and even benefit your physical health.

As part of our work to help the nation lead mentally healthy lives, we have produced this guide to show the positive impact that helping others can have on your own mental health, including some tips and suggestions to help you get started. So just take a few minutes, have a read and do something nice for a friend or a stranger today.

What is altruism?

What do we mean by the word altruism? In short, altruism is when we put other people’s needs before our own, whether it’s offering your seat to a pregnant woman on a bus or making a cup of tea for a work colleague. And what’s more, evidence shows that helping others can have a positive effect on your own mental health and wellbeing. For example, it can reduce stress as well as improve mood, self-esteem and happiness. There are many different ways that you can help others as part of your everyday life. Carrying out good deeds doesn’t need to take a lot of time or even cost money. Small changes can make a big difference. This guide gives you some ideas and tips to get you started by looking in more detail at:

Volunteering
Mentoring
Doing something for a good cause
Random acts of kindness
What are the health benefits?
1. Helping others feels good

When you help others, it promotes positive physiological changes in the brain associated with happiness.

These rushes are often followed by longer periods of calm and can eventually lead to better wellbeing. Helping others improves social support, encourages us to lead a more physically active lifestyle, distracts us from our own problems, allows us to engage in a meaningful activity and improves our self-esteem and competence.

2. It brings a sense of belonging and reduces isolation

Being a part of a social network leads to a feeling of belonging. Face-to-face activities such as volunteering at a drop-in centre can help reduce loneliness and isolation.

3. It helps to keep things in perspective

Many people don’t realise the impact that a different perspective can have on their outlook on life.

Helping others in need, especially those who are less fortunate than yourself, can provide a real sense of perspective and make you realise how lucky you are, enabling you to stop focusing on what you feel you are missing - helping you to achieve a more positive outlook on the things that may be causing you stress.

4. It helps make the world a happier place – it’s contagious!

Acts of kindness have the potential to make the world a happier place. An act of kindness can improve confidence, control, happiness and optimism.

It can also encourage others to repeat the good deed that they’ve experienced themselves – it contributes to a more positive community.

5. The more you do for others, the more you do for yourself

Evidence shows that the benefits of helping others can last long after the act itself by providing a ‘kindness bank’ of memories that can be drawn upon in the future.

Physical benefits
1. It reduces stress

Doing things for others helps maintain good health.

Positive emotions reduce stress and boost our immune system, and in turn can protect us against disease.

2. It helps get rid of negative feelings

Negative emotions such as anger, aggression or hostility have a negative impact on our mind and body.

Engaging in random acts of kindness can help decrease these feelings and stabilise our overall health.

3. It can help us live longer

Giving and helping others may increase how long we live.

Studies of older people show that those who give support to others live longer than those who don’t.

Things to consider before you start
Do something you enjoy

If you love to shop, you could take your elderly neighbour or someone who doesn’t get out of the house much with you. If you are a film buff, why not take a friend to the cinema to see a film that you know they would enjoy? And if you enjoy a cuppa, put the kettle on for some friends at the weekend.

Keep others in mind

Although carrying out good deeds for other people can make you feel good, don’t forget to keep in mind why you’re doing it – to put others’ needs before your own. Do something small for someone else just for the sake of it.

Don’t overdo it

Make sure you don’t overdo it! Giving too much or giving beyond your means is bad for your health and wellbeing. It is important to begin small. Helping others doesn’t have to cost you money or take a lot of time - you could start by calling a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, or donating a small amount of money monthly to a charity close to your heart.

Keep a good deeds diary

Make a note every time you do something to help other people and every time other people do something for you. Reflect on how they made you feel and write these feelings down.

What you can do
Volunteering
Volunteering is a great way to do something for others and research shows that it benefits people of all ages through increasing feelings of self-esteem, respect, motivation and wellbeing.

Here are some ideas for how you can get involved:

Become a member of your local neighbourhood watch
Offer your expertise and support as a mentor or counsellor for those who are in need
Become involved in a charity that you are passionate about. Using your skills and experiences can help them to achieve their mission
Involve your friends and neighbours in community projects. You could work together to create a communal garden or you could start-up a book club
Volunteer your help in a crisis. If your local community has experienced a bad flood or fire, help with the clean-up or even offer your sofa to someone who has been affected
Volunteer to help people in need in developing countries. You could teach children in schools or help to build houses and hospitals
To find out more on volunteering opportunities, check out our suggested organisations at the bottom of this guide.

Mentoring

Mentoring, listening and counselling are all forms of peer support, as are initiatives where colleagues, members of self-help groups and others meet as equals to give each other support.

Supporting your peers by sharing knowledge, experience and emotional help is incredibly valuable. Peers can offer advice, coping strategies and empathy that professionals may not be able to.

Here are some ideas to get you started with mentoring:

Mentor younger pupils to help them adjust to a new school or college
Help someone who has a mental health issue, such as depression or anxiety; it can improve confidence, self-awareness and symptoms
Offer advice to help people with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes
Older people can help isolated peers reconnect with communities and social networks
We’ve listed a number of organisations at the bottom of this guide that you can get in touch with to find out more.

Doing something for a good cause
Getting involved with a cause that is close to your heart can be hugely beneficial for both the cause you are supporting and your own sense of wellbeing and achievement.

There are tonnes of other ways you can get involved. Have you thought of these?

Follow your chosen charity on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and join in with the conversation.
Sign-up to receive your charity’s newsletter and keep up-to-date with the work they’re doing. You can sign up to our newsletter here.
Hold a fundraising event in your local community or at work – why not try a Tea & Talk?
Raise money by taking part in a fun sporting event, such as a 5k run or walk in fancy dress or maybe a themed sports day.
If you fancy a big challenge, you could run a marathon or even take part in a sponsored skydive
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have fun with it! We have lots of ways to get involved with the Mental Health Foundation. You can contact our fundraising team on supporter@mentalhealth.org.uk or 020 7803 1121.

Random acts of kindness
Not sure where to start? We’ve put together some suggestions to help you out:

At home and in your community

Call a friend that you haven’t spoken to for a while
Send a letter to your nan and grandad
Send flowers to a friend out of the blue
Offer to pick up some groceries for your elderly neighbour
Help a friend pack for a move
Send someone a handwritten thank you note
Offer to babysit for a friend
Walk your friend’s dog
Tell your family members how much you love and appreciate them
Help your mum with household chores
Shovel snow for an elderly neighbour
Check on someone you know who is going through a tough time
Help a friend get active
At work

Make a cup of tea for your colleagues
Get to know the new staff member
Lend your ear - listen to your colleague who is having a bad day
Say good morning
Bake a cake for your colleagues
Give praise to your colleague for something they’ve done well
In public places

Give up your seat to an elderly, disabled or pregnant person — Let someone jump the queue at the supermarket
Take a minute to help a tourist who is lost even though you are in a rush — Have a conversation with a homeless person
Help a mother carrying her pushchair down the stairs or hold the door for her
Let a fellow driver merge into your lane
Pick up some rubbish lying around in the street
Smile and say hello to people you may pass every day, but have never spoken to before
Evidence shows that being kind to friends, family and strangers really does improve your emotional and physical wellbeing.

What’s more, the more you do for other people, the more they’ll do for you, and as a result you’ll feel even better. With this in mind, we’re asking you to try and help others once a day for a week and see if it makes a difference to how you feel. Try to keep track of any volunteering that you’ve done, support you’ve given to friends and family or any random acts of kindness that you’ve carried out or that someone has done for you, and make a note of how they made you feel.
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The Science of Good Deeds

It's a classic tale, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge -- the epitome of selfishness, the quintessential mean-spirited, miserly, narcissistic old man. Yet as Scrooge discovers the joy of good deeds, he blooms with the "helper's high" - and his spirit is reborn. And a merrier man had never been seen, as the story goes.

In the last few years, researchers have looked at the so-called helper's high and its effects on the human body. Scientists are searching to understand just how altruism -- the wish to perform good deeds -- affects our health, even our longevity.

Acts of heroism are one form of altruism -- as we saw on 9/11, when firemen rushed into the World Trade Center. Many firemen, chaplains, and citizens joined the rescue and recovery effort, working grueling 12-hour shifts.

In everyday life, countless people choose to give up free time to volunteer -- whether it's serving at soup kitchens, cleaning up litter, taking elderly people to the grocery store, or helping a next-door neighbor.

What prompts a human being to act heroically? What makes us perform good deeds? When we act on behalf of other people, research shows that they feel greater comfort, less stress. But what about the do-gooder's physiology -- how is it affected? Can doing good make us healthier, as a growing number of scientists now believe? Can it even, as studies suggest, help us live longer?

This is the focus of 50 scientific studies funded through The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, headed by Stephen G. Post, PhD, a professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. It is a comprehensive investigation of altruism, aka benevolence, compassion, generosity, and kindness.

The Innate Need to Do Good
It's no surprise that, when we're on the receiving end of love, we reap a benefit. "There are ample studies showing that when people receive generosity and compassion, there is a positive effect on their health and well-being," Post tells WebMD.

Examples: "When a compassionate physician creates a safe haven for the ill patient, the patient experiences relief from stress," he explains. "One study showed that when men felt loved by their wives, they were less likely to experience chest pain that might signal a heart attack."

Only in recent years have researchers explored the scientific underpinnings of the notion that "doing good" is indeed a good thing -- and precisely why it is good for us. Indeed, many scientific disciplines -- evolution, genetics, human development, neurology, social science, and positive psychology -- are at the heart of this investigation, says Post.

Linking Kindness and Health
In a paper published earlier this year, Post describes the biological underpinnings of stress -- and how altruism can be the antidote. This connection was discovered inadvertently in 1956, when a team of Cornell University researchers began following 427 married women with children. They assumed that the housewives with more children would be under greater stress and die earlier than women with few children.

"Surprisingly, they found that numbers of children, education, class, and work status did not affect longevity," writes Post. After following these women for 30 years, researchers found that 52% of those who did not volunteer had experienced a major illness -- compared with 36% who did volunteer.

Two large studies found that older adults who volunteered reaped benefits in their health and well-being. Those who volunteered were living longer than non volunteers. Another large study found a 44% reduction in early death among those who volunteered a lot -- a greater effect than exercising four times a week, Post reports.

In the 1990s, one famous study examined personal essays written by nuns in the 1930s. Researchers found that nuns who expressed the most positive emotions were living about 10 years longer than those who expressed the fewest such emotions.

The Science of Altruism
When we engage in good deeds, we reduce our own stress -- including the physiological changes that occur when we're stressed. During this stress response, hormones like cortisol are released, and our heart and breathing rates increase -- the "fight or flight" response.

If this stress response remains "turned on" for an extended period, the immune and cardiovascular systems are adversely affected -- weakening the body's defenses, making it more susceptible to abnormal cellular changes, Post explains. These changes can ultimately lead to a downward spiral -- abnormal cellular changes that cause premature aging.

"Studies of telomeres -- the end-caps of our genes -- show that long-term stress can shorten those end-caps, and shortened end-caps are linked with early death," he tells WebMD. "These studies indicate that we're dealing with something that's extremely powerful. Ultimately, the process of cultivating a positive emotional state through pro-social behaviors -- being generous -- may lengthen your life."

Altruistic emotions -- the "helper's high" -- seem to gain dominance over the stress response, Post explains. The actual physiological responses of the helper's high have not yet been scientifically studied. However, a few small studies point to lowered stress response and improved immunity (higher levels of protective antibodies) when one is feeling empathy and love.

In one study, older adults who volunteered to give massage to infants had lowered stress hormones. In another study, students were simply asked to watch a film of Mother Teresa's work with the poor in Calcutta. They had significant increases in protective antibodies associated with improved immunity -- and antibody levels remained high for an hour afterward. Students who watched a more neutral film didn't have changes in antibody levels. "Thus, 'dwelling on love' strengthened the immune system," writes Post.

Compassion in the Brain
There's evidence in brain studies of a "compassion-altruism axis," Post tells WebMD. Utilizing functional MRI scans, scientists have identified specific regions of the brain that are very active during deeply empathic and compassionate emotions, he explains. A new mother's brain -- specifically, the prefrontal lobe -- becomes very active when she looks at a picture of her own baby, compared to other babies' pictures.

"This is extremely important," Post says. "This is the care-and-connection part of the brain. It is a very different part of the brain than is active with romantic love. These brain studies show this profound state of joy and delight that comes from giving to others. It doesn't come from any dry action -- where the act is out of duty in the narrowest sense, like writing a check for a good cause. It comes from working to cultivate a generous quality -- from interacting with people. There is the smile, the tone in the voice, the touch on the shoulder. We're talking about altruistic love."

Brain chemicals also enter into this picture of altruism. A recent study has identified high levels of the "bonding" hormone oxytocin in people who are very generous toward others. Oxytocin is the hormone best known for its role in preparing mothers for motherhood. Studies have also shown that this hormone helps both men and women establish trusting relationships.

The Evolution of Kindness
"Humans have evolved to be caring and helpful to those around us, largely to ensure our survival," says Post. "In Darwin's Descent of Man, he mentions survival of the fittest only twice. He mentions benevolence 99 times."

Humans are mammals, and like other mammals we are social animals. As we evolved, our social bonds helped ensure our survival, explains Harvard psychiatry associate professor Gregory L. Fricchione, MD. Fricchione is working on a book about brain evolution and the development of human altruism.

"If it is evolutionarily beneficial for human beings to benefit from social support, you would expect that evolution would provide the species with the capacity to provide social support," he tells WebMD. "This is where the human capacity for altruism may come from."

The Impact of Genetics and Environment
An interplay of our genetics and our environment - especially in our early years - will play into whether we develop into altruistic individuals. "It's a bit like the traits of shyness and extroversion; people are found at all parts of the spectrum. You would expect that some people would have the capacity to be more altruistic than others -- and some preliminary findings that suggest how this capacity may emerge," says Fricchione, who is also associate chief of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

He's referring to a small study published recently, which looked at oxytocin levels in children's urine while they interacted with their parents. One group was composed of orphans who had spent the first 16 months of life in overseas orphanages - neglected before being adopted by U.S. families. The other group of kids had been raised in stable, caring homes during their earliest years.

The adopted orphans had produced lower levels of urinary oxytocin after being with their mothers, compared with children raised in nurturing homes since birth. "This may be a clue to a 'window of opportunity' in children's development, that those who grow up to be empathic, caring, and more altruistic in later life were nurtured more in their earlier years," Fricchione says. "That nurturing may help develop the altruistic capacity."

Future research might focus on whether the experience of being well cared for in early childhood could enhance the development of so-called "mirror neurons" that enable us to have empathic responses to the emotional states we witness in others, he says.

The Healing Hormone
Indeed, oxytocin may be connected to both physical and emotional well-being, says Fricchione. "Oxytocin is the mediator of what has been called the 'tend-mend' response, as opposed to the 'fight-flight' response to stress. When you're altruistic and touching people in a positive way, lending a helping hand, your oxytocin level goes up - and that relieves your own stress."

In one animal study, researchers looked at the numerous effects that oxytocin can produce in lab rats -- lower blood pressure, lower levels of stress hormones, and an overall calming effect.

Altruistic behavior may also trigger the brain's reward circuitry -- the 'feel-good' chemicals like dopamine and endorphins, and perhaps even a morphine-like chemical the body naturally produces, Fricchione explains. "If altruistic behavior plugs into that reward circuitry, it will have the potential to reduce the stress response. And if the altruistic behavior continues to be rewarding, it will be reinforced."

Again, Scrooge is a good example, says Post. "He comes alive because of his benevolent affections and emotions. What's really happening is that he's tapping into the whole neurology, endocrinology, and immunology of generosity.

"All the great spiritual traditions and the field of positive psychology are emphatic on this point -- that the best way to get rid of bitterness, anger, rage, jealousy is to do unto others in a positive way," Post tells WebMD. "It's as though you somehow have to cast out negative emotions that are clearly associated with stress -- cast them out with the help of positive emotions."

WebMD Feature Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

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