Rx It's Good to be Good (G2BG) 2017 Commentary: Prescribing Volunteerism for Health, Happiness, Resilience, and Longevity

This article presents and interprets the strong evidence that helping others in meaningful ways generally results in a happier, healthier, resilient, and even longer life for the giver; based on the strength of this evidence overall and in subpopulations including patient groups, it then asserts that the time has come for health-care professionals to prescribe and recommend such behavior at sustainable levels generally in the range of 2 hours per week. The medical evidence justifies the prescribing (or recommending) of volunteerism and helping activities for individuals, schools, companies, and whole communities. This article presents this innovative claim against the backdrop Norman Rockwell's iconic image of The Golden Rule (1961), in which he captures the benefits of focusing our minds and actions on contributing to the lives of others. The review encompasses all age groups, many special categories of people grappling with illness, and population health generally.