Lower levels of a marker of systemic inflammation were found in people who were willing to give more support to others than to receive.
A new study by scientists from Ohio State University has shown a link between mutual aid and lower levels of a marker of inflammation in humans. A prerequisite was his willingness not only to accept the support of others, but first of all to provide it himself. The results of the work were published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
The sample included 1,054 people between the ages of 34 and 84 who participated in the US National Research on Midlife Development and completed questionnairesthat asked about relationships, such as how often they received help from friends, family, and romantic partners. In addition, the respondents assessed their desire to support loved ones and how often such situations arose.
Then they passed blood tests, in which they measured indicators such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine that affects many organs and systems of the body: blood, liver, immune and endocrine systems, metabolism. The risk of diseases such as cancer and heart disease is often associated with high levels of IL-6. Age, income and education, medication use, and diagnosed illnesses are other important factors taken into account.
The results showed that lower IL-6 scores were observed in participants who not only had excellent social relationships, but were also willing to provide support in them. Therefore, having friends you can rely on does not guarantee health benefits unless the person responds when the other needs help. “It is likely that when people believe they can be more supportive to friends and family, these relationships are especially beneficial and relieve stress by lowering inflammation,” the researchers noted.
Moreover, the relationship was most pronounced among women. “This reflects the idea that social relationships are often more important to them than to men. But our sample size was not large enough to show this convincingly. We will study the issue further, ”summed up the authors of the work.
Photo: Still from the movie “August: Osage County” / © Getty Images
