Good Friends = Good Health
Not that you needed any more excuses to build that sweet man cave or to schedule a girls night out, but now new research shows that maintaining good friendships is actually good for your health. A recent story in the Washington Post looked at the relationship between having strong friendships and the impact on your health.
It turns out, strong social ties may help stave off memory loss as you age, reduce stress, boost immunity, help you lose weight and keep it off, and buffer against depression, among other health benefits.
There’s also a strong longevity link, says Carl Latkin, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: “If you have supportive relationships, you’re going to live longer.” A 2010 review of nearly 150 studies that was published in PLoS Medicine found that people with strong social ties had a 50 percent better chance of survival, regardless of age, sex, health status and cause of death, than those with weaker ties.
