kindness Archives - Amazing Health Advances

The Medical Minute: Doing for Others Lifts Your Mood and Improves Your Health

AHA Publisher — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 08:00:03 +0000

Penn State Health via Newswise – In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Angel Schuster kept herself mostly isolated from friends and family. Although the situation has improved, the continued spread of COVID-19 means her long shifts as a pediatric emergency physician for Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are often the closest she gets to a major outing. That started to change when, as the department’s vice chair for diversity, equity and inclusion, she decided to coordinate a community health fair for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national day of service celebrated on the third Monday in January each year. Planning for a community-building event turned out to be the perfect release. “One of the many reasons why community involvement is part of our mission is because we know that when you are doing for others it really lifts your mood,” Schuster said. “As a physician, when I have a chance to participate in something like a health fair, it helps me remember that I’m here to take care of people and make their lives better when I can. It is one of the things that I find very uplifting.” Those good feelings you get from helping others are universal no matter what your occupation, says Brooke Hertzler, a clinical psych specialist and licensed clinical social worker with Penn State Health Behavioral Health Services at Holy Spirit Medical Center. And, they are good for your body too. “Biologically, giving or doing an act of service can positively activate chemicals in our brain that release positive hormones,” Hertzler said. Studies show serving others is linked to increasing serotonin in the brain, a key hormone that stabilizes mood, provides feelings of well-being and happiness, she said. “It also can activate a dopamine neurotransmitter, which helps us feel pleasure and satisfaction. In addition, that same act of service or kindness releases oxytocin, a hormone often linked to empathy and trust,” Hertzler said. She believes so strongly in these positive effects that she often encourages her patients to volunteer or find a way to take time out of their day to help others. “It is something we talk about frequently. I try to find out what they like to do, what their strengths are and how they can use those strengths to help others,” she said. A big part of reaping the rewards is taking the time to reflect on how serving others makes you feel. Ninety-nine percent of Hertzler’s patients say it uplifted them and helped their mood. “Sometimes doing the act of kindness can be an awakening as well that allows you to reflect and tune into the things in your life that you are grateful for,” she said. “I believe that the positivity of doing acts of service or kindness promotes a positive energy in the world that is much needed right now.” To read the original article click here.

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The Secret Ingredient to Better Mental Health + How Kindness Changes Your Brain

AHA Publisher — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 07:00:20 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #268) and blog, I talk about the neuroscience of kindness, the impact kindness has on our mind, brain and body and how to use mind management to be more kind! Kindness is a powerful weapon. Not only does it make the world a better and safer place for everyone, it also is a great way to improve intelligence and brain health! As renowned author Henry James once said, “three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” The brain functions best with a flexible, dynamic balance between specialized, locally segregated activity, and more generalized global integration. Too much segregation and excessive integration can lead to suboptimal functioning. What does all this science mean? Research has shown that training yourself to be more kind (to both yourself and others!) can increase your positive emotions, sense of social connectedness and pro-social behaviors, while decreasing your negative feelings, stress and social biases, all of which improve your brain integration, balance and health. The reality is that our brains love it when we are kind! Kindness has several really great effects in the brain and body, including: Activating reward systems in the brain and body. Kindness can make us happy and give us a sense of purposefulness! “Switching on” our mirror neurons, which help improve our ability to relate to and communicate with others by helping us become more understanding and perceptive. Activating our perceptual, affective and cognitive capacities, which increases integration among different networks in the brain, leading to a better use of the brain’s abilities, as well as an increased processing efficiency. In short, being kind can help us think faster and more intelligently! Boosting serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters in the brainthat make us feel safe and at peace. They can cause the pleasure/reward centers in our brain to light up. Endorphins (the body’s natural pain killer) may also be released when we are kind! Positively impacting brain chemistry. Acts of kindness can release hormones that contribute to our mood and overall wellbeing, as well as our ability to connect with others (for example, by releasing the “love hormone” oxytocin). Reducing stress. Kindness to ourselves can prevent shame from corroding our sense of identity, reduce our stress and anxiety levels, and help boost self-esteem. Kindness can even improve feelings of confidence and optimism! Improving our overall health. Compassion has been shown to improve our overall wellbeing and how we age!

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How to Live Past 100 Years Old + The Toxins, Mindsets, & Habits That Are Rapidly Aging Us

AHA Publisher — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 08:00:18 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Aging is an inevitable part of life, but this doesn’t mean we must accept that our health will get worse as we get older. In this podcast (episode #232) and blog, I speak with successful businessman, visionary and longevity investor Sergey Young about his new book, The Science and Technology of Growing Young, quick and simple longevity habits that can help you stay healthy and age well, the three horizons of longevity, dangerous aging “hacks” people should avoid, the relationship between mental health and longevity, and more! As Sergey points out, you can improve your health and longevity by transforming the way you live your life. There is so much hope for the future! Aging doesn’t have to be a curse. Sergey has made it his life’s work to show people that longevity is not only possible, but achievable, which is why he founded the Longevity Vision Fund. This fund invests in: More affordable technology for early diagnostics, so that we can catch things early like cancer, which means better recovery rates and longevity! Growing livers in lymph nodes, to overcome donor liver availability issues and the medical cost of transplants. Technology and science that gives hope for long-term, sustainable healing and longevity. Unfortunately, the science of longevity has become a pretty crowded and confusing space. It is hard to know what to do to stay young and healthy, especially when there is so much conflicting advice out there! One of the best ways to approach the field of longevity science is what Sergey calls the 3 horizons of longevity: 1. What you can do today. This involves changes to your lifestyle, including: a) Focusing on early diagnostics (comprehensive, annual medical checkups). b) Getting rid of bad habits, like smoking and eating junk food. c) Eating a healthy diet. A healthy, mindful diet can extend your life by 3 to 10 years. This includes eating lots of veggies and fruit and restricting your calorie intake! As Sergey notes, eating healthy is not more expensive than eating processed food all the time—this is an illusion. If you plan well, real food fills you up for longer and is less expensive, especially in the long-term, because it reduces your overall healthcare costs. d) Exercising regularly. Try different styles of working out and aim to get 10000 steps in a day. e) Practicing mind management (mindfulness and meditation). Good mind management builds up your stress resilience, thereby decreasing the impact of toxic stressors on your mental and physical health. We need to remember that our body is not designed to handle constant stress. But in our modern world, so many people are stressed all the time, and it is affecting our health! Thankfully, there are so many great devices, apps, books and tips out there to help us learn how to manage our mind and control how everyday stressors affect our overall wellbeing and longevity. In fact, when you learn how to manage your mind, all the other pieces of a healthy lifestyle fall into place, because you are learning how to live mindfully! This is the foundation of aging well. For more on mind management, health and longevity, preorder my new book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. f) Starting the day off right. It is important to have a good morning routine. Bring in different activities, like listening to the silence, visualizing how amazing your life will be, telling yourself that today will be an excellent day, doing some physical activity for 1-2 minutes, journaling, or reading. g) Monitoring the quality of your sleep. h) Being a good person. Be kind, give back to the world and be a meaningful part of the community. Just start with one small act of kindness every day, and see how your life changes! i) Having a purpose—live beyond yourself! Having a sense of purpose and giving back in life not only adds years to your life, but life to your years. The great news is that you don’t have to wait for new and exciting technologies to improve your health and longevity! Sergey has lots of great longevity tips on his website, so check them out. 2. What will be available tomorrow. This is the focus of Sergey’s Longevity Vision Fund. It focuses on technologies that are in the development stage, like stem cell therapies and smart hospitals, which will be available in the next 5 to 10 years. 3. What you need to be aware of for the future. This is the visionary horizon, including the ability to change organs, human avatars and merging A.I. and the human brain. This is both an exciting and undefined stage in the longevity field. Health really is wealth! As Sergey points out, if we are feeling sick and awful all the time, what kind of contribution can we make to the world? But, if we feel healthy and happy, we can be a resource, instead of just drawing on resources! Of course, this is sometimes easier said than done, especially these days. The global COVID-19 pandemic has hit a lot of us hard. It can be challenging to have hope for the future, especially when we feel like we have lost so much this year: time, money, structure, excitement, celebrations, family, friends, community—you name it! But the current pandemic doesn’t have to be the be all and end all. As Sergey notes in his recent Thrive Global article, COVID-19 has taught us some very important life lessons: We need to embrace uncertainty and realize how fragile life is. COVID-19 has shown us what matters the most, highlighting what is important in our lives and how small acts of kindness and connection are so powerful. We need to realize that adversity can be an opportunity to grow. The current pandemic has given many of us a chance to rediscover ourselves and our relationship with the world around us. We need to learn how to use technology well. The current pandemic has shown many of us the benefits of technology, and how it offers us unique opportunities to learn new things and socialize in new ways. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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Kindness Slows Aging and Should Be Part of Everyone’s Wellness Plan

AHA Publisher — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 08:00:52 +0000

Christine Ruggeri, CHHC via Dr. Axe – Several studies show that exercising kindness boosts happiness levels, but new evidence shows it also promotes healthier aging, too. Adding a little kindness into your day can boost your self esteem, support your immune system, improve the health of your heart and promote healthy aging. So why not add small acts of kindness to your day? Being kind creates a ripple effect that inspires those around you. Think how we can make small changes in our communities with kindness and learn how to be happy at the same time. It’s definitely a win-win. What Does Kindness Mean? Kindness involves enacting kind behaviors toward other people. It doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming — it’s simply showing a bit of love, gratitude and compassion to the people around you. And did you know that kindness is actually contagious? Simply observing an act of kindness can boost happiness levels and make the viewer more likely to practice kindness. This is exactly why the “pay it forward” method works so well. Random Acts of Kindness Practicing kindness is like lifting weights — you need to exercise kindness and strengthen those muscles over time. The best way to do that is to perform random acts of kindness every day. You’ll notice that it boosts your optimism, self esteem and overall happiness — making you want to enact kind behaviors even more often. Here are some random acts of kindness you can try: 1. Hold the door for strangers 2. Plant a tree in your neighborhood 3. Pick up litter at the park or beach 4. Pay for someone’s coffee (or dry cleaning, lunch, groceries, ice cream) 5. Get involved with a fundraiser 6. Compliment a stranger 7. Write a letter showing gratitude 8. Write a positive review for a local business 9. Mow your neighbor’s lawn 10. Mentor a young person 11. Prepare a meal for a family in need 12. Recycle, even when you aren’t home 13. Volunteer your time at a non-profit 14. Bring your nieces and nephews out for a treat 15. Gift your spouse or loved one with a massage 16. Walk your neighbor’s dog 17. Contribute to a community garden 18. Grow vegetables and share them with neighbors 19. Donate clothes or home goods 20. Smile at work Health Benefits of Kindness There are many health benefits of kindness, and most only take a few seconds or minutes of your day. Here’s how kindness impacts your health: • Boosts happiness • Increases feelings of self worth • Improves self esteem and self worth • Improves anxiety • Reduces pain • Fights stress • Improves depression • Reduces blood pressure • Boosts immunity • Improves relationships • Increases longevity Kindness Makes the Body Younger? And here’s where it gets really interesting. The recent randomized controlled trial conducted by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that practicing loving-kindness meditation may actually slow aging. When 142 middle-aged adults participated in mindfulness meditation, loving-kindness meditation or a “waitlist” control group during a 6-week workshop, scientists recorded their telomere length. The participants in meditation groups attended six hour-long group meditation classes once a week and practiced meditation at home for 20 minutes per day using an audio recording. Telomeres, the markers used for this study, are known as hallmarks of aging. They’re the protective caps at the end of chromosomes that prevent them from damage. As we age, telomeres begin to wear down and shorten. Studies show that this is associated with a number of health issues, including DNA damage and cancer. In fact, telomere length is directly related to longevity. And we know lifestyle factors, like getting regular exercise and eating a healthy diet, reduce the rate of telomere loss, while factors like chronic stress and living a sedentary life wear them down earlier in life. The meditation study found that the loving-kindness meditation group lost significantly less telomere length than the other groups. The mindfulness meditation group showed changes in telomere length that were intermediate between the loving-kindness and control groups. Researchers concluded that loving-kindness meditation may work to “buffer telomere attrition,” thereby serving as a tool for healthy aging. Want to give loving-kindness meditation a try? Here’s an exercise from Berkeley’s Greater Good in Action program. How Kindness Changes Your Brain and Body A 2019 study published in the Journal of Social Psychology tested whether performing different types of kindness activities impacts happiness. Researchers found that performing kindness activities for seven days increased happiness levels. And they also found a positive correlation between the number of kind acts and increases in happiness. And a study published in Journal of Happiness Studies indicates that happy people scored higher on their recognition and enactment of kind behaviors. Female undergraduate students in Japan reported that their subjective happiness increased simply by counting their own acts of kindness in one week. The study results suggest that happy people become even more kind and grateful when they think back on their kindness, and a person’s strength of kindness plays an important role in increasing happiness. Clearly there’s a powerful kindness-happiness connection, but why does this occur? Kindness affects the brain and body in several ways, including the following: • Boosts oxytocin: Witnessing or engaging in acts of kindness produces oxytocin, which is known as the “love hormone.” A boost in oxytocin can lead to a feeling calmness, joy, generosity and compassion. Oxytocin also releases nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels and reduces blood pressure, and reduces free radicals that cause disease. • Stimulates serotonin production: Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that sends messages from one area of the brain to another. It works to control your mood and reduces the production of stress hormones. • Reduces cortisol: People who engage in acts of kindness consistently produce less cortisol, a main stress hormone. • Triggers the “helper’s high” phenomenon: Being kind stimulates the brain’s pleasure and reward centers, causing what’s referred to as the “helper’s high.” This is due to increased dopamine levels after performing acts of kindness. Checklist of Working Healthy Aging Hacks Into Your Day Are you loving the healthy aging benefits of kindness? Here are other simple ways to keep your mind and body sharp even as you age. Morning • Prep your skin with a natural youth serum, like this Homemade Anti-Aging Serum • Use natural, chemical-free makeup products, like this DIY Foundation Makeup • Set aside 10 to 30 minutes for mindfulness meditation • Short on time? Just add collagen to your morning smoothie or cup of coffee Lunch • Drink a cup of green tea • Eat a nutrient-rich lunch that’s packed with anti-aging foods like avocado, nuts, bone broth, turmeric, cooked vegetables, coconut-based products and salmon • Exercise for at least 30 minutes (if you haven’t already) • Practice a simple act of kindness toward someone at work or a complete stranger Evening • Enjoy an occasional glass of red wine and piece of quality dark chocolate (both contain resveratrol) • Stick to healthy desserts and limit simple carbs • Use anti-aging essential oils in the shower or bath, like frankincense, myrrh and lavender • Take your daily supplements (if you haven’t already), especially probiotics, digestive enzymes and adaptogenic mushrooms Bedtime • Try oil pulling or a saltwater rinse • Wash your face with a natural and gentle cleanser • Read a positive book, magazine or article • Limit screen time • Get to bed early and embrace sleep Weekends • Practice simple stress relievers, like taking a walk outdoors, grounding, taking a yoga class or getting a massage • Spend time with loved ones • Engage in healing prayer or meditation • Create a calm environment • Move your body Final Thoughts • Not only does practicing kindness positively impact the health of your brain, heart and immune system, but it also employs healthy aging effects. • Adding small acts of kindness to your day, like offering compliments, holding the door or preparing a meal for someone in need, will improve your own mood and health, and support the health of people around you too. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Axe click here.

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