The Healing Power of Doing Good

About the Book

Conventional wisdom has always held that when we help others, some of the good we do flows back to us. That satisfaction has always been thought to be largely emotional—feeling good when you do good. Now important, widely discussed research shows that helping others regularly produces significant health benefits as well—in fact, it has effects similar to those many of us experience when we exercise.

It is almost impossible to read this book without wanting to do good. Both for those who are already volunteering and for those who are considering it, this valuable personal guide tells you how to choose an activity that’s right for you, how to maximize the health benefits, and how to overcome the main obstacle to getting started: lack of time.

The Healing Power of Doing Good reaffirms and explains that when we care for others we care for ourselves. It is an important book for those suffering from chronic health problems as well as the health conscious, anyone interested in how our mind affects our body, and people in the helping professions. And it reminds us that never has there been such a need for caring as there is today.

About the Author

Allan Luks, an internationally recognized health and social services leader, led the first research which linked the emotional and physical health benefits gained by those who regularly help others. He is also the author of Will America Sober Up?, You Are What You Drink, and the editor of Having Been There. He has initiated health promotion laws that have become national models and written extensively for newspapers and magazines.

Peggy Payne is a writer whose articles appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science Digest, Family Circle, McCall’s, and many others. The author of a novel, Revelations, she lives in Chatham County, North Carolina.