L♥VE = HEALTH By Kindal Ridd SWUPHD Art & Design
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n 1938, Harvard Medical School began a study that showed truly fascinating results. They investigated the biological and behavioral factors that account for the health benefits of connecting with others. For example, they determined that a happy relationship relieves harmful levels of stress, which can adversely affect coronary arteries, gut function, insulin regulation, and the immune system. Caring behaviors also trigger the release of stress-reducing hormones. "Nobody cared about researching empathy or attachment,” said the Harvard investigators, but their groundbreaking study, which continues to this day, has been able to report that "the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships." To support this claim, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that people in loving relationships have reduced stress, anxiety, and depression. People engaging in supportive, positive relationships produce more oxytocin and are therefore less likely to get sick after exposure to cold or flu viruses. “Generally, we see patients with strong social support having better recoveries,” said Benjamin A. Steinberg, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the cardiovascular division of University of Utah Healthcare. “That can be from friends or family, or even support from an animal partnership, like a pet.” Steinberg attributes improved recovery to lower levels of stress hormones, like cortisol. Let's talk about a healthy relationship. According to Stephen Covey, author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People’, the reason why most relationships fail is because we focus on changing our superficial behaviors and attitudes before addressing the way we perceive the relationship itself. We focus on changing the leaves of our relationship tree instead of the roots. Here's one suggestion for focusing on the root. There is a concept in psychology called 'self-signaling’; it's the idea that our actions determine who we are - and not the other way around. If you act generously, you will become generous. If you constantly express your gratitude towards others, it starts becoming part of your personality, and you truly begin to feel it. A real-life example of this concept, comes from my favorite book, ‘The Hiding Place’. This is the triumphant true story of Corrie ten Boom, a World War II concentration camp survivor. In the book she says, “It was astonishing, really, the quality of life she was able to lead in that crippled body, and watching her during the three years of her paralysis, I made another discovery about love. Mama’s love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street—and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls that shut it in." We could all use more of this medicine called love, so here's an idea for sharing it…
HEALTH MAGAZINE | WINTER 2022
