Every year in Australia, about 4.4 million people volunteer. If you are one of those volunteers, you probably have a philosophical commitment to helping others. Did you realise, though, that your altruistic act was doing you good as well?

As well as helping others, acts of altruism help you to learn new skills and meet new people. Yet beyond these effects there are unexpected perks. The University of Chicago has done research into altruistic behaviour and found that women are more likely than men to feel empathy and feelings of empathy and altruism are unrelated to financial status. Yet the standout finding from this research is that altruistic feelings have measurable benefits, not only for the receiver but also for the giver.

Altruism, stress and the brain

In Cleveland, Ohio, the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love studies the benefits of altruism, which it defines as “unselfish benevolent love”. Esther M. Sternberg, a research professor who authored The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions, wrote a paper for the Institute. In it she examined mechanisms by which altruistic love affects health, concluding that caring may suppress disease activity and activate immune response.

Sternberg says altruistic love may heal by lowering stress. This is important. The stress-state produces terrible effects through both mind and body. The American Psychological Association states that “psychologists have long known that stress impacts our ability to fight infection”. During stress the brain releases unhealthy chemicals and hormones. This affects our immune cells’ operation, reducing their ability to fight infection and inflammation.

Relaxation rewards

Improved immunity is only the first benefit of altruism. Sternberg says, “It is also possible that altruistic love might activate certain aspects of the ‘relaxation response’ in addition to blocking aspects of the stress response.”

The relaxation response is the opposite of the stress response. The stress response causes an increase in heart rate, stress hormones and blood pressure while slowing digestion. In contrast, the relaxation response allows our heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and hormonal levels to return to normal.

The relaxation that arises from altruistic acts also helps the body stop pain. Allan Luks, executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of Health, coined the expression “helper’s high”. This feeling mirrors the calm after a good workout. In the 1980s, while working as executive director for New York’s Big Brothers Big Sisters, Luks surveyed thousands of volunteers about their experiences. From the results he theorised that helping people creates pain-killing endorphins.

Since then, multiple studies have supported Luks’ hypothesis. One, published in 1998, found that this helper’s high is healing. From two surveys with a total of 1746 participants, the Institute for the Advancement of Health concluded that helping-induced relaxation was linked to pain relief, particularly in stress-related disorders including lupus, multiple sclerosis, voice loss and headaches.