Healthy Love Notes

By Sandra Kiume

Here’s something to consider when updating your personal blog. Affectionate Writing Can Lower Cholesterol is a post in PsyBlog summarizing some recent psychology research on expressing affection. Seems that writing about your positive feelings toward a loved one (in first person, not third) for 20 minutes at a time over a few weeks can significantly reduce your cholesterol level, even controlling for other factors.

One of the strengths of this study was that it specifically examined the benefits of expressing affection. Other studies have found evidence for the benefits of expressing affection but have had difficulties separating the expressing from the receiving. This is because when you express affection towards someone else, they are likely to reciprocate. Expressing is, therefore, tightly bound up with receiving.

In an age where human nature is often considered profoundly selfish, here’s a selfish reason to be nice to people. Of course compared with all the money-spinning methods of reducing cholesterol levels around nowadays, you’ll never see this one advertised (except on PsyBlog!) because it’s essentially free. So, pass it on…

Now I have, and thank you Jeremy for writing about it.

While you’re reading more about affectionate writing at PsyBlog, take a moment to vote for your fave among the Top Ten Psychology Studies. Right now Aaron Beck’s work on cognitive-behavioural therapy is neck and neck with the famous Milgram experiment on obedience to authority, but there are lots of other great studies in the list. Examine the candidates, which include not-so-famous but groundbreaking psychological research studies and even something from Freud.

Sandra Kiume is a mental health advocate and editor of Channel N who lives in Vancouver, Canada.