“Friends, how many of us have them…,” are the famous lines from the legendary hip-hop group, Whodini. The song was catchy, but it also spoke to power of friends, good or bad. But there’s actually medical proof that good friends can be healthy–seriously!
So go ahead and grab your girlfriends and your boy’s and see how friends assist with our health and can actually let us live longer.
Fights Cancer
One such study, reported in the journal Cancer, followed 61 women with advanced ovarian cancer. Those with ample social support had much lower levels of a protein linked to more aggressive types of cancer. Lower levels of the protein, known as interleukin 6, or IL-6, also boosted the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Women with weak social support had levels of IL-6 that were 70% higher in general, and two-and-a-half times higher in the area around the tumor.
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In 1989, David Spiegel, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, published a landmark paper in Lancet. Itshowed that women with breast cancer who participated in a support group lived twice as long as those who didn’t. They also had much less pain.
Fights Cardiovascular Disease
“People with social support have fewer cardiovascular problems and immune problems, and lower levels of cortisol — a stress hormone,” says Tasha R. Howe, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Humboldt State University. “Why? The evolutionary argument maintains that humans are social animals, and we have evolved to be in groups. We have always needed others for our survival. It’s in our genes. Therefore, people with social connections feel more relaxed and at peace, which is related to
better health.”
Protects You From Dementia
A Swedish survey of people 75 years old and older found women and men who kept in contact with a variety of friends and relatives had a lower risk of developing dementia. The researchers said it was possible that juggling many relationships was a mental exercise that kept brains “in tone.”
Adds Years to Your Life
A study of healthy aging studied almost 1,500 seniors for a full decade. One interesting finding: having good friends increases longevity even more than having close relationships with adult children and other family. And those with the largest amount of close friends outlived those with the smallest amount by 22 percent.
Other studies have shown that people with fewer friends tend to die sooner after having a heart attack than people with a strong social network. Having lots of friends may even reduce your chances of catching a cold. That’s true even though you’re probably exposed to more viruses if you spend a lot of time with others.
