Volunteers earn improved health and longer life

Getting benefits for yourself is the last thing on your mind when you volunteer. Of course, first and foremost is the sincerity to help by donating your time and resources. I got a chance to be involved with my family and coworkers in the civilian-led operations at Villamor Air Base. Thousands of people from Tacloban and other Yolanda-devastated areas arrive daily. Volunteers welcome them, counsel them, feed them, clothe them, provide medical attention when necessary, then bring them home to their relatives in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

It is heartwarming to witness a lot of people come together as a community — volunteers, young  and old, from all walks of life, to be counted as warm bodies and do whatever they could to show they care. Some clean, some comfort, some cook, some feed, some carry the victims’ belongings, and some drive them home. But what is truly touching and inspiring is the strength, courage, hope, and resolve of the Yolanda victims to move on and live.

Sara Konrath, lead author of the University of Michigan study, said in an interview, “We’ve known for a long time that volunteering can have benefits not just to the people receiving help but also to those who give their time and energy. On the surface, volunteering seems to be a purely selfless act. But, in fact, people volunteer for a wide range of reasons, from getting out of the house and meeting new people to doing something good for people who need help and groups they support.”

American Psychological Association published the study online, which involved Wisconsin high school students who graduated in 1957. These covered 3,376 men and women who were about 65 years old at the time of the study. More than half or 57 percent reported doing at least some volunteer work in the past 10 years.

After four years, just 2.3 percent of the volunteers had died, compared to 4.3 percent of non-volunteers. How often you volunteer is also important as only 1.8 percent of regular volunteers were dead compared to 2.5 percent of occasional volunteers. Those who volunteered more hours per month also had lower mortality.

But the single strongest variable was people’s reasons for volunteering. People who rated other-oriented motives were more likely to be alive after four years. “Our analysis clearly demonstrates the importance of motives when considering the health benefits of volunteering,” Konrath said. While the study didn’t try to explain why motives matter so much, the authors said that concern for others helps us tap into the same system that operates in mothers and other caregivers, a system that basically tones down the stress of caregiving and promotes well-being.

Stephanie Watson, executive editor of Harvard’s Health Watch, posted in her blog late June this year the physical health benefits of volunteering.

“I already knew about the mental health benefits of volunteering. Studies have shown that volunteering helps people who donate their time feel more socially connected, thus warding off loneliness and depression. But I was surprised to learn that volunteering has positive implications that go beyond mental health. A growing body of evidence suggests that people who give their time to others might also be rewarded with better physical health —including lower blood pressure and a longer lifespan,” she said.

She reported that Carnegie Mellon University published in Psychology and Aging that adults over 50 who volunteered on a regular basis were less likely to develop high blood pressure than non-volunteers.

“How might volunteering contribute to lower blood pressure? Performing volunteer work could increase physical activity among people who aren’t otherwise very active, says lead study author Rodlescia Sneed, a doctoral candidate in social and health psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. It may also reduce stress,” Watson explained.

“In the Carnegie Mellon study, 200 hours of volunteering per year correlated to lower blood pressure. Other studies have found a health benefit from as little as 100 hours of volunteering a year,” she added.

“One key for deriving health benefits from volunteering is to do it for the right reasons. A 2012 study in the Journal Health Psychology found that participants who volunteered with some regularity lived longer, but only if their intentions were truly altruistic. In other words, they had to be volunteering to help others —not to make themselves feel better,” she concluded.

According to researchers at the London School of Economics, when they examined the relationship between volunteering and measures of happiness in a large group of American adults, they found that the more people volunteered, the happier they were. When compared with people who never volunteered, the odds of being “very happy” rose 7% among those who volunteer monthly and 12% for people who volunteer every two to four weeks. Among weekly volunteers, 16% felt very happy.

Likewise, you reduce your risk of depression when you volunteer. Since volunteer work involves social action and being active in a social support system, the danger of social isolation, which is the greatest risk for depression, is ruled out when you go through a challenging phase in your life.

The family is the basic unit of society. When we volunteer as a family, we are not only strengthening the bond that ties us as blood relatives but also our oneness with our fellowmen. While our children may not voice it out, the good example we show in initiating to volunteer creates an impact in their young minds.

If your kids are young, let them donate their toys. Counselors on site at Villamor say that fearful kids they welcome brush their tears and break into a smile when you offer them a toy.

Look around the house. We have this bad habit of hoarding things we don’t even have use for. And having said that, please don’t donate your trench coats or leather boots. It would be better to sell those and use the proceeds to donate things that are really needed.

Discuss and check where you can be effective as a family. Will you join the relief efforts and volunteer to donate and pack goods? Will you join the welcome committee for those migrating to NCR? Will you join medical missions? Will you help provide livelihood or help rebuild homes?

Of course, the easiest is to donate goods and money, but I hope you would consider donating your time and service.

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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.