Lending a Helping Hand Can Make You Feel Better

Wednesday, August 24th, 2022 -- 9:01 AM

(By Elizabeth Dohms-Harter, Wisconsin Public Radio) Want to feel better and look your best?

According to Elizabeth Dohms-Harter of Wisconsin Public Radio, this isn't a pitch for another diet fad or workout program. It's more of an affirmation, backed by science, that mind and body wellness is within reach, you've just got to hold out a helping hand.

Drs. Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli explain the data behind how serving other people is its own form of medicine in their new book, "Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others is the Best Medicine for Yourself." Those benefits include greater longevity, blood pressure control, fewer heart issues, less depression and better sleep and willpower.

"What the science supports is that rather than going deeper into ourselves, which some of the self-help or 'me time' proponents suggest, really to get out of our own head, to focus on others and serve other people is the best way to achieve all of these outcomes that we want for ourselves in terms of health and well-being," Trzeciak said during an appearance on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Central Time."

The effect in the body when we help others, boosted neurotransmitters and hormones and an activated parasympathetic nervous system that relaxes us, form a sort of buffer against stress in the moment, in addition to chronic stress that's associated with myriad health challenges, Trzeciak said.

Chronic inflammation is another health challenge that helping others protects against. "Serving others actually can switch off the genes in such a way to reduce the production of chronic systemic inflammation," he said.

Data parsed by the doctor duo showed that during functional MRI brain scans, pain centers in our brains are activated when we see someone struggling; conversely, the reward centers of our brains are triggered when we take action to alleviate someone else's pain and suffering.

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