Scientists say being a Good Samaritan also good for your health

By Tom Campbell via SWNS

Being willing to help others could bring health benefits to good Samaritans, scientists have found.

People who support their family and friends are less likely to suffer from chronic inflammation, linked to heart disease and cancer, according to a new study.

Previous studies have looked at whether receiving help from others boosts a person's health, but the results have been mixed.

Now researchers at Ohio State University in the United States have decided to investigate whether giving support rather than receiving it also came with benefits.

A person who has friends to lean on may not receive a health boost unless they are willing to return the favor, the researchers say.

Lead author postdoctoral student Tao Jiang said: "Positive relationships may be associated with lower inflammation only for those who believe they can give more support in those relationships."

Data from 1,054 healthy adults aged between 34 and 84-years-old who took part in the National Survey of Midlife Development in the US was analyzed by the researchers.

Participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure their level of "social integration", with questions such as were they married or living with a partner, how often they contacted family and friends, and how often they socialized.

They also answered questions on whether they believed their family, friends or spouse could be relied upon in times of need.

Mr. Jiang said: "The key to this research is the fact that the dataset is one of the few that also asked participants to rate how much they were available to support family, friends and spouse."

Two years later, the participants returned for blood tests to check if they had signs of systemic inflammation in their body.

More specifically the researchers tested for interleukin-6 (IL-6), a protein associated with many serious health conditions.

Co-author Dr. Baldwin Way said: "Higher levels of IL-6 are associated with increased risk for many of the diseases that are the top killers of Americans, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.

“That’s why we thought it was important to find out why previous studies found such weak evidence for the link between social support and lower inflammation.”

People who were willing to help others had lower levels of chronic inflammation even after taking into account other factors, ranging from age, income and education to lifestyle choices, medication use and diagnosed medical conditions, the researchers found.

Further analysis found the health benefits of helping others were found to be stronger among women.

Mr. Jiang said: "This reflects the idea that social relationships are often seen as more important for women than for men.

"But our sample size was not large enough to show that conclusively. We need to study that issue further.”

The study however only looked at what people said they were willing to do, and did not monitor their actions.

Mr. Jiang said: "But the study does give “a more nuanced understanding” of the link between health and relationships.

"This work underscores the importance of incorporating the concept of giving support into future research in this area."