The Best Thing You Can Do For Yourself: Do For Others

Want to protect yourself from the physical ravages of stress? The best thing you can do, according to researchers at the University of Buffalo, is help others through stressful situations. A U of Buffalo news release reports that researchers followed more than 800 people for five years, asking them about their own stressful situations (serious, non-life-threatening illness, burglary, job loss, financial difficulties or death of a family member) and also about the amount of time spent helping friends, neighbors or relatives who did not live with them by providing transportation, doing errands and shopping, performing housework, providing child care and other tasks. “Our conclusion,” says lead researcher Michael J. Poulin, “is that helping others reduced mortality specifically by buffering the association between stress and mortality.” Read more from the University of Buffalo.