February 14th, 2024

Kindness is very good for the heart

  
Did you know that KINDNESS is very good for the HEART?
 
   Since February is heart health month and today is Valentines Day, I wanted to share how kindness affects your heart.
 
   I have written numerous posts about kindness and how when you demonstrate Acts of Kindness, it not only benefits the person that you extend the kind deed to, but it also benefits you as well.  When researching information on how kindness affects your heart, I ran across the following information that I wanted to share in part, written by Dr. David R. Hamilton:
 
  “Do you know that warm feeling you get with kindness? It’s like a feeling of connection, or even rightness. Some say they get a warm feeling in the chest; others feel it emotionally. With others, it’s like a little burst of happiness that causes them to smile.
 
   Either way, that warm feeling has numerous positive consequences in the body. Some of these positive effects occur in the heart and arteries. It starts with oxytocin. Genuine kindness produces oxytocin in the body.
 
   Exciting new research shows that one of its major roles in throughout the cardiovascular system is called a ‘cardio-protective’ hormone. Cardio-protective?
 
   This basically means that it protects the cardio–vascular system (heart and arteries). It does this in two main ways: It lowers blood pressure, and it helps keep the arteries clear of certain conditions that lead to disease.
 
   More specifically, oxytocin produces nitric oxide, which dilates (widens) the arteries, thereby relieving the pressure on the heart to push blood through, thus lowering blood pressure. Secondly, it acts as both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory in our arteries, thus reducing levels of harmful free radicals and inflammation, both of which are linked with cardiovascular disease.
 
   The amazing thing about this is that it is kindness that switches on this cardioprotective effect. Kindness is very good for the heart.
 
   Now actually validated by scientific research, hostility and aggression are now linked with cardiovascular disease. Genuine kindness, on the other hand, is cardioprotective.
 
​   And I say ‘genuine’ for a reason. It takes the feeling of connection to produce oxytocin. We only get this feeling when kindness is genuine. If it’s not genuine, there’s no oxytocin. It’s like nature’s catch-22. You only get the benefit from kindness when your kindness is heartfelt and honest. In other words, you only benefit when you’re not trying to benefit.
 
   It’s like nature is showing us that genuine kindness is the way!”

When is the last time you initiated an Act of Kindness or when is the last time you were the recipient of a kind deed?  Feel free to share and post!