Friends Are The Secrets Of A Longer Life

These might sound like mere homespun sentiments, but in fact, there’s scientific evidence that friendship can extend life. A research psychologist says, “Social ties are the cheapest medicine we’ve got.” More than a hundred studies attest to the health benefits of friendship. People with strong social networks are shown to boost their chances of life-threatening illnesses, have stronger immune systems, improve their mental health and live longer than people without social support. In some of them; a lack of social support raised the risk of premature death even more than smoking cigarettes. “One of the worst things you can do to someone is isolating them,” says Ronald Glaser, an immunologist. More recently, scientists have zeroed in on how social connections affect recovery from specific problems. Those who reported emotional support were three times more likely to be alive six months after their attack than subjects who had no support. Friendship seems to make a difference when it comes to more mundane alignments too. People with plentiful social support are also less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and other types of mental illness. So here are I’m going to justify this statement by explaining the important factors:

• Stress factor: The most important fact is that friendship reduces the stress factor which might account for friendship’s health-giving powers. Part of the answer may simply be that friends are likely to encourage you to take good care of yourself and help out when a health crisis looms. Our bodies are sensitive to whole range of social ties, much of this has to do with how stress affects the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular system- and how friendship, by easing stress, can buffer the impact on the body.  Stress of course, triggers the famous fight or flight response. Or chest rated by a rush of stress hormones, your heart races, and blood pressure goes up, muscles tense and the nervous goes on high alert. Chronic stress can take a physical toll, contributing to heart problems, for instance by raising blood pressure, and constricting arteries and increasing blood tendency to clot.  Having friends mitigates the physiological consequences of stress. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, for instance have found that when study subjects were asked to do stressful tasks, just having a buddy in the same room- even if the friend wasn’t helping with the task- made the task- doer’s heart rate and blood pressure less likely to climb.

• Boosting immunity: Researchers found out in their study that caregivers who had good social support showed measurably stronger immune responses. They found that caregivers who had good social support when the study began showed measurably stronger immune responces one year later than those subjects who had no such support. Researches believe that having reliable friends mean that when trouble strikes, fewer stress hormones recourse through the body. Blood pressure and heart rate are less likely to spike, which helps prevent damage to arteries. The immune system can be more vigilant in patrolling the body for bacteria and viruses, since it’s not constantly reacting to emergency messages from stress hormones. Over a lifetime, these subtle differences may add up to big protection against the ravages of time and illness. That’s good news, because marriages offer protection especially for men. This may be because men tend to get their emotional needs met by the women in their lives, rather than by their male pals.

• Friend and Foe: Some friendships can leave people feeling depleted rather than renewed; “Research suggests that if your social interaction is hostile conflicted or less than supportive, they may not have beneficial consequences.” Friendship based on one-way dependency or filled with unhealthy competition can raise stress rather than reduce it. Most studies, however, have affirmed the positive effects of friendship, with some exploring whether you’re better off having many companions or just one good one. Some studies conclude that having a wide range of social contacts-belonging to community groups as well as having a network of friends-offers the greatest protection. But others show that more crucial is having even just a few close friends-“the kind of people you can’t imagine life without,” says psychologist Laura Christensen. “Quality beats quantity all the time.”