Many people know that helping others feels good. But now, new research shows it might actually be good for your brain too.
A large study in the United States has found that middle-aged and older adults who regularly help others outside their homes tend to have slower memory and thinking decline as they age.
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Massachusetts Boston followed over 30,000 adults for 20 years. They looked at how people’s thinking skills changed over time and compared this to how much they helped others.
The results were clear: those who gave their time to help others had brains that aged more slowly. Their thinking ability declined 15 to 20 percent less compared to people who didn’t help others as much.
The kind of help people gave didn’t always need to be official volunteering. The study found that both formal and informal support mattered. Formal helping could include scheduled volunteering for a charity or community group.
Informal helping meant things like giving a neighbor a ride to the doctor, babysitting for a friend, or mowing someone’s lawn. These everyday actions, even if small, seemed to give big benefits when done regularly.
The best results came when people helped others for about two to four hours each week. That’s only a small part of your time, but it could make a big difference in keeping your brain sharp.
The study used national data from the Health and Retirement Study, which tracks U.S. adults over age 51. This allowed the researchers to look at many people over many years.
They also made sure to consider other factors that affect brain health, like education, income, physical health, and mental health. Even after adjusting for those things, the link between helping others and slower thinking decline remained strong.
One interesting result was that people who stopped helping others completely had worse brain function. This suggests that staying active in helping roles may be important for older adults. Giving back to others may help keep their minds strong.
This research adds to growing evidence that helping others is not just good for communities, but also for the people doing the helping. It may reduce stress, make people feel happier, and give them a sense of purpose. It can also strengthen social ties, which are known to improve mental and physical health.
In fact, the same research team recently found that helping others can also lower stress-related inflammation in the body. Inflammation is linked to many health problems, including memory loss and diseases like Alzheimer’s.
As people get older and face risks of feeling lonely or isolated, this study shows the importance of keeping them involved in meaningful ways. Doing good for others may be one of the simplest ways to also do something good for yourself.
“Many older adults can still give a lot to the people around them,” said lead researcher Sae Hwang Han. “And they may also be the ones who benefit the most from continuing to help.”
This study was published in the journal Social Science & Medicine. It was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
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