Volunteering: Helping strengthens the heart
All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichThose who do good for their fellow human beings strengthen their health at the same time. Even an hour of community service a week can improve risk factors for cardiovascular disease, a study with Canadian youth shows.
Socially active
For the experiment, the team led by Dr. Hannah Schreier of the University of British Columbia 106 tenth graders. Half of the 15 to 16 year olds took part in a ten-week charitable program. They looked after younger children with their homework and leisure activities for one hour a week. The remaining teenagers were on a waiting list for charitable work during this phase.
At the beginning and four months after the experiment, the researchers determined various parameters of the volunteers, including the body mass index (BMI) as well as inflammation and stress levels in the blood. These influence the cardiovascular risk. They also used psychological tests to determine the self-confidence, mental stability, mood and empathy of the participants. All measured values were roughly equally distributed in both groups at the start of the study.
Decreasing heart risk
Four months after the start of the study, the researchers found that the non-profit-making young people had benefited in terms of health: their level of the stress hormone cortisol was lower than at the start of the activity.
Inflammation values such as the messenger substance interleukin 6 also fell. They are an indication of subliminal inflammatory processes in the body. It is known from these that they contribute to the development of vascular changes (arteriosclerosis) in the long term and thus increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Apart from these positive effects, the BMI of the young helpers also improved. This is relevant for the heart insofar as being overweight also promotes the development of arteriosclerosis and the like.
Improved mood
“It was very encouraging to see the extent to which voluntary work improved the health of the adolescents,” says study director Schreier. Young people would have benefited the most if their values for empathy and selflessness had risen particularly sharply - and whose mood had improved over the course of the experiment.
Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer in Western nations. The first signs of the diseases manifest themselves in adolescence. Previous studies had shown that psychological factors such as stress and depression, but also mental well-being, influence the risk of the disease. (cf)
Source: Hannah M. C. Schreier: Effect of Volunteering on Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Adolescents, JAMA Pediatr. 2013; (): 1-6. doi: 10.1001 / jamapediatrics.2013.1100
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