A Health and Longevity Boost

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I spent yesterday afternoon in my volunteer role as trustee of an almshouse. After reading an article on The Guardian website earlier in the week referring to research over the decades on the benefits of volunteering, I  could have felt very smug indeed or at least basked in the higher echelons of a score on a happiness and well-being chart. 

It seems that helping others boosts our health in a variety of ways, but with one proviso, namely that you have to do it for solely altruistic reasons. If you do, however, body and brain are allegedly repaid in a multitude of ways including the easing of inflammation, the boosting of mental health, the building of resilience, feeling fitter and even living longer. One study also suggested that volunteering with three different organisations gives you an increased benefit.

Darn, I may have been volunteering in three directions when I first retired but life has a habit of getting in the way and of course I've deliberately shed roles for time to concentrate on family. Thankfully the article does suggest that part of the effect may arise as a consequence of some kind of evolutionary by-product from caring for kith and kin at a time when we lived in caves and hunted animals with wooden spears. Now I appreciate that looking out for Grandotty and my mother might not be quite the same as protecting the young and elderly from marauding woolly mammoths, but, fingers crossed, let's hope the bodily effect on myself is the same!

(Image by Klaus Hausmann from Pixabay)

 

 

Comments

Treaders said…
I mentioned in a previous post that I would like to volunteer at a place like Restos du Coeur (a kind of soup kitchen) but right now my life is so hectic I feel that I would be doing them a disservice if I couldn't fulfil commitments. Maybe later though!
17 January 2025 at 09:44
Jennyff said…
When I am taking my cold showers, not drinking alcohol or going out for strenuous walks I do wonder if I am doing these things to keep me able do these things. However when the power was off in our building recently and we had no lift I did feel quite smug climbing three floors of the fire escape to get back to the penthouse.
26 January 2025 at 14:47
Caree Risover said…
I think your smugness was well deserved indeed
26 January 2025 at 17:39
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