Actual writers shocked to learn that “writing can make you healthier.”
Well this doesn’t sound right at all.
In an op-ed today at The Guardian, David Robson makes the case that “expressive” writing can make you healthier, and not just through some vague sense of personal satisfaction. In suggesting that writing “doesn’t only soothe a troubled soul, it can even boost our physical health,” Robson cites a study from the 1980s by James Pennebaker and Sandra Beall in which they found that
After writing about their feelings for four consecutive days, people’s white blood cells started replicating more quickly in response to foreign invaders. Subsequent studies have found that expressive writing can accelerate recovery after a biopsy. It also seems to reduce blood pressure and improve lung function.
