[acb-hsp] Having Friends Could Save Your Life

[peter altschul]

Having Friends Could Save Your Life
  A lack of social interaction might be just as bad for you as 
smoking or drinking.  Get out there and be friendly.
  Here's a new health risk to worry about as you get older: A 
lack of human contact.  According to researchers from Brigham 
Young University, low social interaction has the equivalent 
lifespan impact as smoking 15 cigarettes daily, or being a raging 
alcoholic.  Cutting yourself off from others is worse, even, than 
inactivity.  And twice as bad as obesity.  So, you better start 
making friends.
  The research is based on a meta-analysis of 148 previously 
published studies measuring how often people interacted and their 
health outcomes.
  The results, which appear in stPL-OS Medicinest, are worrying 
because people are becoming more and more atomized.  "The modern 
way of life in industrialized countries is greatly reducing the 
quantity and quality of social relationships," say the editors.  
"Many people in these countries no longer live in extended 
families or even near each other.  Instead, they often live on 
the other side of the country or even across the world from their 
relatives."
  And yet, "a lack of social relationships is a risk factor for 
death is still not widely recognized by health organizations and 
the public," the paper notes.  The idea is an afterthought 
compared to smoking and drinking, despite evidence that the 
medical community could improve health by encouraging 
socialization.  "People with stronger social relationships had a 
50% increased likelihood of survival than those with weaker 
social relationships," the paper says.
  The researchers speculate that stronger relationships with 
family and friends have a sort of positive feedback effect.  
Older people are better looked after, but they also take better 
care of themselves
  "Physicians, health professionals, educators, and the media 
should now acknowledge that social relationships influence the 
health outcomes of adults and should take social relationships as 
seriously as other risk factors that affect mortality," the 
editors say.
  Ben Schiller is a staff writer for CoddExist, and also 
contributes to the FT, and Yale e360.