Quiz: Good Deeds and Your Health

People who give their time get both! Volunteers say they feel high self-esteem, low levels of depression, and are happy with their lives. Better heart health is also one of the many benefits of working to help others, studies say.

Both rev up your brain’s reward center, which makes chemicals called endorphins. These give you that happy glow known as the “helper’s high.” It seems doing good for others can be as habit-forming as candy.

You can get a major boost to both your mental and physical health from as little as 2 hours of volunteering a week.

People who volunteer recover faster from a wide range of ailments -- including depression and heart attacks -- than those who don’t volunteer. They may also feel less pain.

It’s not the giving so much as the feelings that giving creates: the sense of kindness toward loved ones, strangers, and even foes does your body good. All that positive energy cuts stress hormones and lowers chemicals that can cause inflammation -- and disease.