There’s a quiet epidemic in public safety, one that doesn’t make headlines but affects nearly everyone in uniform: cardiac disease. Law enforcement has the worst cardiac health profile of any profession ever studied, with heart attacks being the leading cause of death among active-duty officers under 55 (Violanti et al., 2006; FBI LEOKA, 2023).
And yet, here’s a powerful and surprising truth:
Acts of compassion have been shown to physiologically protect and heal the heart – literally.
So how do these two truths coexist? Why are the people trained to serve and protect others dying from the one organ most symbolically tied to that service?
After six years of working with law enforcement, corrections, dispatchers, and command staff around the country, I’ve asked this question hundreds of times. I share the cardiac statistics, then I share the research from Stanford’s Dr. Kelly McGonigal showing that compassion not only buffers the effects of stress, but releases oxytocin, which binds to heart tissue and actively repairs stress-induced damage.
And almost every time, I hear the same response:
“We can’t afford to care like that anymore. It would destroy us.”
Or, “We had to shut it off to survive.”
The Compassion Myth: Why We Fear What Heals Us
In public safety culture, many have come to believe that compassion equals vulnerability, and vulnerability equals danger. The logical defense mechanism? Shut down the heart. Harden it. Wall it off. This becomes our “resilience.”
But here’s the problem: we’ve confused empathy with compassion. And while the two might feel similar at first glance, they are biologically and neurologically very different, and understanding that difference might just save your heart, your career, and your sense of purpose.
Empathy vs. Compassion: A Physiological Difference
Empathy is feeling with someone – their pain, their fear, their trauma. While it’s essential for connection, unregulated empathy can lead to empathic distress, which overwhelms the nervous system and creates a state of helplessness, fatigue, and burnout (Singer & Klimecki, 2014).
Empathy overload activates the pain centers in the brain (anterior insula, dorsal ACC) as if the pain were your own. Over time, this can lead to withdrawal, numbness, or complete shutdown.
Chronic empathy without tools to regulate it has been shown to increase cortisol, suppress immune function, and accelerate burnout in caregiving and frontline professions (Rothschild, 2006).
Compassion, on the other hand, is feeling for someone with care and a desire to help, without absorbing their suffering. It activates different brain regions, including the ventral vagal complex and medial orbitofrontal cortex, associated with positive emotion, motivation, and resilience (Klimecki et al., 2013).
Compassion increases heart rate variability (HRV), reduces inflammation, and boosts oxytocin, calming the stress response, supports cardiac repair, and fosters connection (Kok et al., 2013).
In one study of healthcare professionals, those trained in compassion practices showed greater resilience and less emotional exhaustion, even when exposed to high trauma loads (Delaney, 2018).
Why This Matters for You
As a public safety professional, you’re exposed to suffering, trauma, and danger on a scale most people will never understand. You need tools that not only help you cope but help you recover. Compassion is one of those tools.
It doesn’t weaken you. It empowers you.
It doesn’t drain you. It restores you.
It doesn’t make you soft. It makes you human, and that humanity is your greatest strength, not your liability.
A New Definition of Strength
This series exists because too many of you have been told, directly or indirectly, that protecting your heart means shutting it down.
But science and your own physiology suggests something else:
Your body wants to care. It is wired for compassion.
And when practiced wisely, compassion doesn’t wear you out, it helps you come back.
The Path Forward
In this series, we explore:
The neurological and physiological differences between empathy and compassion
How compassion heals the body, brain, and heart, especially in high-stress professions
How to protect yourself from empathic burnout
Simple, practical ways to begin shifting from distress to empowered care
We’ll also give you short practices and strategies that you can use on shift, after a call, or when decompressing at home because recovery doesn’t just happen at the end of the day. It happens in small moments when you choose to return to your heart.
One Powerful Step: Connect
If you take just one thing from this series, let it be this: your nervous system recovers through connection.
Oxytocin, the hormone released during compassionate connection, doesn’t just feel good, it binds to receptors in your heart and helps heal the physiological wear and tear of stress (Carter, 2014). It’s released during physical touch, eye contact, emotional conversations, and even just being truly present with someone you trust.
So start here:
Hug someone you love for at least 12 seconds.
Talk to someone you trust about your day, even if you don’t go into detail.
Let yourself care, without carrying.
Compassion is not what breaks you. It’s what brings you back.
And your best protection isn’t a closed heart.
It’s a strong, open, beautifully human one.
References
Carter, C. S. (2014). Oxytocin pathways and the evolution of human behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 17–39.
Delaney, M. C. (2018). Caring for the caregiver: Evaluation of the effect of an eight-week pilot mindful self-compassion (MSC) training program on nurses’ compassion fatigue and resilience. PLoS ONE, 13(11), e0207261.
Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S., Ricard, M., & Singer, T. (2013). Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(6), 873–879.
Kok, B. E., et al. (2013). How positive emotions build physical health: Perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1123–1132.
McGonigal, K. (2013). How to make stress your friend. TED Talk.
Rothschild, B. (2006). Help for the helper: The psychophysiology of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.
Singer, T., & Klimecki, O. M. (2014). Empathy and compassion. Current Biology, 24(18), R875–R878.
Violanti, J. M., et al. (2006). Police and cardiac disease: A 25-year follow-up. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 8(4), 257–266.