help a loved one, or (in some cases) even cut a check to a stranger in need. Could generosity be the missing, often


FEEL GOOD DO GOOD,


The Helping – Health – Happiness Connection


by Lisa Marshall G


rowing up on Long Island, New York, young Stephen Post often received an unusual prescrip-


tion from his mother when he was feeling grouchy or under the weather. “She’d say, ‘Why don’t you go out and help someone?’” he recalls. “I’d go out and help Mr. Muller rake leaves or help


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old Bobby Lawrence fix his boat. Then, I’d come back feeling better, and feeling better about life.” Decades later, Post—a professor of


preventive medicine at New York’s Stony Brook University—is among a grow- ing contingent of researchers exploring just how such acts of generosity and the feelings (empathy, compassion, altruism) that prompt them may actually improve our mental and physical health. Recent studies have shown that


people that volunteer live longer, suffer less chronic pain, have bolstered im- mune systems, are more likely to recover from addiction, and experience an in- the-moment sense of calm akin to that which people experience during and after exercise. Scientists have yet to fully un- derstand what the physiological underpin- nings are of such health benefits, but early studies credit a cascade of neurobiologi- cal changes that occur as we reach out to


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overlooked ingredient to a prescription for better health? Perhaps, says Post, author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times. “This is a young science, but what we have begun to discover is that there is something going on, physiologically, in this process of help- ing others that seems to make people feel happier and report greater health.”


Helping Hands Live Longer


We’ve all felt it: That blush of inner- warmth we get after we bring a plate of healthful, steaming food to a sick relative, volunteer to read to kids at a local preschool or help sort donations for a shelter.


According to a 2010 survey of


4,500 Americans by United Healthcare, 68 percent of those that volunteered in the previous year reported that doing it made them feel physically healthier; 73 percent noted that it lowered their stress levels. Meanwhile, 29 percent of volun- teers that suffered from a chronic illness claimed that giving of their time helped them to better manage the illness. Other studies, by researchers at Boston College, found that when chronic pain sufferers volunteered to help others with similar conditions, they saw their own pain and depression levels decrease. At least seven studies have shown that people that regularly volunteer or give of themselves live longer—especially if they do it for genuinely altruistic reasons. Cami Walker, 38, of Denver, has ex- perienced firsthand the physical benefits of being generous. After one sleepless night, lying awake and, “feeling sorry for myself,” due to a flare-up of her multiple sclero- sis, she decided to take the advice of a spiritual teacher that suggested she, “Give something away each day for 29 days.” On day one, she called a sick friend to offer her support. On day two, she dropped $5 in a hat for some street performers. An- other day, she treated a friend to a foot mas- sage. By day 14, she recalls, “My body was stronger and I was able to stop walking with my cane. After months of being too sick to work, I was able to go back part-time.” Walker subsequently wrote the best- selling 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving


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