Kindness Strengthens the Immune System

A strong immune system is what keeps you healthy. Science has confirmed in numerous studies that kindness builds your immune system. Below are summaries from some of these studies, found and reprinted from various sources cited.

"There is actual scientific research out there that says our health is positively impacted just by witnessing acts of kindness.

"An interesting study that highlights this point was performed in the 1980’s when Harvard students watched a film of Mother Teresa caring for the poor in Calcutta. The researchers took swab samples of the students’ saliva before and after the film. [They] showed significant increases in the protective antibody salivary immunoglobulin A (S-IgA) over those watching a neutral film. McClelland termed this the “Mother Teresa Effect.” Moreover, S-IgA remained high for an hour after the film in those subjects who were asked to focus their minds on times when they had loved or been loved” (Post, 2009).

"Based on the data, they concluded that there are significant positive physiological changes, including benefits to one’s immune system, overall health and well-being from simply watching or thinking about a person treating another with kindness, love and compassion" (from https://teamchoosinggrace.com/2016/09/04/the-mother-teresa-effect/).

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"A lot happens inside us too when we witness the kindness of others. Not only does it inspire kindness in us and spark kindness contagion, but it can even impact the immune system.
"Why does witnessing kindness have such a profound effect in the body?

"There’s two reasons for it. The first is that we’re genetically wired for kindness. Our species has survived for as long as it has because we helped each other, cared for our young, and we have loved. Over time, human biology simply evolved so that love, compassion, and kindness were reflected in healthy physiological states because they kept us alive in the long term.

"The second reason is more subtle and reflects why it doesn’t matter whether you’re the giver, receiver, or even witness to kindness, even if the latter is not live, but on video or via a clip shared via social media.

"It’s because it’s not in being kind itself that brings about most of the effects of kindness. It’s how kindness feels that matters. I’ve written about this in other blogs when justifying why kindness is the opposite of stress.

"It’s not a seemingly stressful event that produces any physiological effects of stress, but how the event feels to you that does it. The event is simply the scene. The physiological effects come from how stress feels within that scene.

"It’s why two people can experience the same event or happening and only one of them feels stressed by it. That person will have elevated stress hormone levels as a consequence, but the person who was unaffected won’t.

"Similarly, whether you give, receive, or witness kindness is the scene, the backdrop, the context. It’s how kindness feels within that context that has physiological effects" (from https://drdavidhamilton.com/the-mother-theresa-effect/).

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