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With all the positive stories on pplkind of late, you’d be forgiven for thinking doing good is good for you. Well, turns out, it is actually. New research has proven what we all secretly knew-slash-hoped: volunteers enjoy healthier hearts.
According to University of British Columbia researchers, volunteering is good for your heart, even at a young age.
The study which was published in the JAMA Pediatrics journal this week, aimed to find out how volunteering impacts the physical health of adolescents.
Over 100 15-year-old students from a Vancouver high school were split into two groups. One group volunteered regularly for ten weeks and the other group were instead put on a waiting list for volunteering activities.
Comparing results both before and after the study, researchers measured physical impacts such as the students’ body mass index, inflammation and cholesterol levels, as well as mental impacts such as self-esteem, mood and empathy levels.
After the test was up, the students who had volunteered in activities such as one hour a week working with young school children in their neighborhood, had lower inflammation and cholesterol levels, as well as lower BMIs than the group who were not volunteering.
Hannah Schreier, one of the researchers said: ”It was encouraging to see how a social intervention to support members of the community also improved the health of adolescents. The volunteers who reported the greatest increases in empathy, altruistic behaviour and mental health were the ones who also saw the greatest improvements in their cardiovascular health.”
So in case you weren’t encouraged to volunteer for altruistic reasons, here’s a few selfish ones. Give, give, give: your heart (and thousands of others’) depends on it! <3
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Photo by valart2008
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Filed under: Kindness, Mind, Science Image may be NSFW.
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