A few weeks ago, our blog talked about how having a negative mindset can affect our physical health in a negative way. This week we’re going to flip the coin and talk about how being kind can have a positive effect on your health. Kindness is one of the most overlooked things we can do to stay healthy. Not only that, researchers are now finding that it can prolong our lives as well.
A new study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has recently found that kindness may help slow the effects of aging. While this study is not conclusive, it makes sense. If negative emotions affect us negatively, positive emotions should affect us positively.
In this study, 150 middle aged volunteers were separated into three groups. One group did mindfulness meditation training, the second group learned about loving kindness meditation, and the third group served as the control group. The researchers measured each volunteers’ telomeres (caps on the end of your chromosomes that protect your DNA) at the beginning and end of the study. As we grow older, our telomeres get shorter. The shorter they get the shorter your life expectancy is, so they are a good marker for longevity.
At the end of the experiment all three groups had shorter telomeres, but the group that had practiced loving kindness had less shortening than the other two groups. The control group’s telomeres were the shortest. The researchers concluded that practicing kindness for just a few weeks slowed aging slightly, prompting hopefulness that we can slow our own aging process by doing the same thing in our daily lives.
- Kindness releases endorphins in our brain which help alleviate pain.
- People who practice kindness age slower and have less stress than average.
- Kindness improves mood and helps with depression and anxiety. It stimulates the production of serotonin, which heals, calms and increases happiness.
- Kindness also releases oxytocin, which aides in the release of nitric oxide which dilates blood vessels to reduce blood pressure.
- Kindness stimulates dopamine in the brain causing your pleasure centers to light up.
- Practicing kindness improves our self-esteem.
- Being kind to others helps people bond.
Related Posts
Nutritional Psychiatry – Making the Brain Gut Connection
“You are what you eat.” We’ve all heard that before. You may have noticed that you feel better when you eat certain foods, but have you ever really thought about the fact that what you feed your gut directly affects your mental health? Science is beginning to understand that the foods we eat directly control…
Sleep Better – 25 Proven Tips That Work
It’s 10 p.m. You’re in bed. It’s getting late, but you’re not sure you’re ready for sleep. Your mind goes over the events of the day and stress creeps in when you think of all the things you haven’t done yet. You take a deep breath, close your eyes and try to relax. It’s 12:30…
Why Women Are Developing Alzheimer’s at Alarming Rates
A study out from Johns Hopkins University suggests that stress affects women’s brains far more severely than men’s, which may explain why women develop dementia, Alzheimer’s, and related illnesses at faster rates than men. 909 study participants based in Baltimore, Maryland, participated in a long-range study at the National Institute of Mental Health. Researchers followed…