Volunteer, its good for your longevity!

Flowers by water's edge

A recent study discovered altruistic volunteers live longer than those who don't volunteer, or those who volunteer simply for personal gain. This research was conducted by Sara Konrath, and others from the University of Michigan, and is reported in a Health Psychology article "Motives for Volunteering are associated with mortality risk in older adults."  The study utilized longitudinal data collected from a group of Wisconsin residents who graduated form high school in 1957.

There is a problem for you and I, now that we've been made aware of the potential to increase our lifespan through volunteering.  It diminishes some of the altruistic motivation for volunteering, hence potentially wiping out the gains available to those who volunteer more for altruistic reasons...

So, now that you know about one more benefit of volunteering, pretend like you never heard it.  Speaking from personal experience, one of the benefits of growing older is that the ability to forget is enhanced!