You don’t have to tell Joan Raab about how knitting and crochet helped her through chemotherapy and its aftermath—twice.

The Grand Island resident knows her hobbies made a difference in her health.

“That really helped me through it, having some small piecework to work on,” said Raab, who survived two bouts with breast cancer in the past 15 years. “If you have a hobby, it’s easier to go through it.”

She’s right, many doctors now say.

Hobbies—the kind that engage your mind and body, and relax you while you work at them—can make surprising differences in your stress levels, experts said.

And by lowering your stress, hobbies and pastimes can boost your overall health and wellness, since stress has been shown to take a negative toll on your health in key ways.

“There is evidence now that stress thwarts the immune system,” said Dr. Cynthia Ambres, chief medical officer of HealthNow New York. “Our mental health is really the driver of our physical health.”

Ambres said that Western New Yorkers should pay particular attention to their stress levels, especially since living in the upstate economy can produce mental and emotional pressure that can damage our health.

Last year, “you could just see it on the street,” Ambres said. “It was a collective stress related to the economy. It was palpable.”

Even without added tension due to a struggling economy, many Americans—and many Western New Yorkers—carry high stress loads.

Fully 43 percent of adults in the U. S. suffer negative health effects due to chronic stress, Ambres said.

The good news is, hobbies and pastimes can help—and it doesn’t have to mean a huge investment of time, although you can certainly go that route if you like.

Half an hour a day—that’s 30 minutes out of 24 hours—spent working at an “active” hobby like gardening, painting, pottery-making, knitting, model-building or the like is enough to make a significant improvement in your mental state and physical health, Ambres said.

“Passive” hobbies, like reading or listening to music, are also good, if not the health ideal that the more active hobbies are, she said. And sports may qualify, if they are restful like golf, not the sorts that get your heart rate up and make you sweat. Those high-energy sports are good in their own way, but don’t fit the health bill for reducing stress, the doctor said.

“I tell people, ‘Find something every day that is good for you,’ ” Ambres said. “It’s not so much what you’re great at. People tell me all the time, ‘Oh, I can’t paint.’ It’s worthwhile to do it anyway—because you take time and you focus away from your stress points. Even half an hour a day can make a difference in your life.”

“It has a wonderful renewing effect,” she said. “You will feel the difference.”

Bob Sieben, a former employee of the University at Buffalo and the Richardson Boat Co., knows that to be true.

Sieben has always been a hobbyist, building boat and airplane models in his spare time. But in retirement, he stepped up his hobby-time hours—even spending large chunks of time building an organ from scratch.

Sieben, of Grand Island, said there is no doubt in his mind that the 10 to 12 hours a week he spends tinkering around boosts his mental and physical health.

“You just get an enjoyment out of it, a satisfaction,” he said.

What worries hobbyists like Raab and Sieben, both senior citizens, is that hobbies and pastimes seem to be fading away in popularity with younger generations who prefer virtual and technological enjoyment to the more creative, hands-on kind.

“I feel sorry for them,” said Sieben.

“They’re missing out,” agreed Raab, “on something really good.”

If you’d like to respond to this column, or suggest a topic for a future piece, e-mail us at

getwell@buffnews.com

, or write to the paper at Get Well, Features Dept., The Buffalo News, P. O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240.