What’s Up Doc? Are there health benefits to being a kind person? – MetroWest Daily News

Dr. Jeff Hersh| Daily News Correspondent

Q:My friend told me that doing good deeds actually improves your health.Is this just a sales pitch?

A:Your friend is absolutely correct. Being kind/doing good increases serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins, while decreasing cortisol and other stress hormones.The health benefits to the kind person correlate with these physiological benefits.For example, being kind to someone else has been shown to benefit the kind persons health by:

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This is true whether the kindness manifests as volunteering, donating blood, paying for a strangers coffee (or other random acts of kindness), donating to charity, treating others nicely (yes, this is the Golden Rule, and it is true for small things like allowing some other driver to merge in traffic and/or giving someone a sincere thank you, to bigger things like forgiving a grudge you may have been carrying), etc.

And this even includes being kind to yourself!By this I mean things like forgiving yourself for some error/transgression you made, carving out some "me time" and/or giving yourself a treat/reward when you have weathered a tough situation, etc.

You do not have to go it alone as you think of kind/giving things you may be able to do. In fact, doing kind/good things with friends/family actually enhances the benefits. Intuitively, this should make sense to you.Doing these things with others will have the added benefits of strengthening friendships, decreasing loneliness, and increasing your activity level (which of course has additional benefits as well).

Both volunteering and charitable giving are great family/group activities.Note that not every volunteer position or charity is right for every person, so learn about the volunteer position and charity you are considering and make sure it is a good fit for you.Once you have found something that looks like a fit, consider involving family andfriends as well. This includes children!

As soon as a child is old enough to understand the concept of getting presents, they are old enough to be exposed to the concept of giving.Many parents take their kids to pick out a gift for the other parent, a sibling or another relative. "This is from me, Mommy is always accompanied by a heart-warming smile.Why not extend this to the joy of charitable giving?Go through their toys and clothing with them and let them pick something to donate. Use your judgment as to what is appropriate.The handmade sweater from Grandma, even if one sleeve is longer than the other, may not be the right choice.Do not let them give away their prized stuffed animal; giving should not cause them pain. If you donate money, allow your child to give as well; no charity will mind a donation of one thousand dollars and thirty-two cents; they may not understand the 32 cents, but your child will.

As your child gets older, encourage them to get involved with volunteer/charitable activities of organized groups, be it scouting, your place of worship, school or some other group.Support these efforts, whether that means driving them somewhere, going with them to the park cleanup, collecting food donations or helping sell holiday candy. Helping is the key.Spend time with them as you walk door to door to your neighbors to sell candy and let your child do the talking.Taking the candy to work to sell is fine, but it does not replace the time you spend with your child visiting neighbors and friends!

Bottom line, giving/being kind has benefits for both the person doing the giving as well as the person receiving the kindness. The Dali Lama summed this all up quite succinctly by saying Be kind whenever possible.It is always possible.

Jeff Hersh, Ph.D., M.D., can be reached at DrHersh@juno.com

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What's Up Doc? Are there health benefits to being a kind person? - MetroWest Daily News