It’s self-evident that helping others is helpful to those being helped. But a recent study¹ has found that giving – in the form of helping others – is also beneficial to the helper’s health and longevity. The study looked at 846 subjects from the Detroit area. The subjects completed baseline interviews identifying stressful experiences in the
A study published in 2000 by the American Psychological Association found that “religious involvement was significantly associated with lower mortality.” Similarly, a study published in The American Journal of Public Health in 1997 found that frequent religious attendance reduced mortality.
Researchers suspect some of this comes from healthier behaviors and more social interaction characteristic of those with religious involvement. But, to their credit, they accept that the research results show a connection between religious involvement and reduced mortality and indicate that more research is needed to understand why.
I recently read an interesting book entitled, “Long For This World – The Strange Science of Immortality” by Jonathan Weiner. Much of the book centers on conversations with Aubrey de Grey who believes that aging is a disease caused by the accumulation of waste at the cellular level, sometimes called the “disposable soma theory”.
So, do you have an altimeter on the dashboard of your car to gauge your altitude?”
In my last blog post I discussed how metrics need to fit the thing being measured and how a one-metric-fits-all or one-metric-says-it-all approach can be misleading.
I attended the organizational meeting of the Health Policy Committee in the Michigan House of Representatives last Thursday and had the privilege of speaking with a number of committee members afterwards. Chairman Gail Haines of Waterford really has a good group on this committee. They bring together a very broad and diverse set of backgrounds in the area of health policy and they clearly have a passion for making improvements in our state in this area. I think that they will work well together and listen to a broad range of points of view as they do some good things in our state.
