Giving your time to help others can pay off in real health reasons for yourself.  Volunteering increases your cognitive and mental well-being, promoting skills such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, imagining, and learning words.  Volunteering helps keep the brain engaged, which helps protect the memory as you age.  Volunteers also are physically healthy.  Several studies show that people who volunteer have fewer medical problems, and stay physically active, thereby possibly reducing their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other cardiovascular problems.

"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up." ~ John Andrew Holmes, Jr.