Though it may seem obvious, there is research supporting the connection between health and friendship.
Here just some of the benefits of spending time with friends:
- Celebrate with you
- Support you
- Provide companionship and combat loneliness
- Increase your sense of belonging
- Improve your self-esteem
- Help you cope
- Boost your happiness
- Encourage you
But do you know to what extent our connections with others impact our health and well-being?
Strong social ties, in adults as well as children, may also help our bodies help themselves. When a person is in a stressful situation, evidence shows that the stress is reduced – the blood pressure and heart rate are not as elevated – when the individual has a support person with them.
Having social connections improve our odds of survival by 50%. Based on a compilation of data collected from 148 studies focusing on social relationships and health outcomes , researchers concluded that social relationships should be taken as seriously as other risk factors, such as people who smoke and don’t smoke, that affect long life.
Additionally, research indicates that caring behaviors trigger the release of stress-reducing hormones. Therefore, caring for friends, family, and loved ones helps to relieve harmful levels of stress, which negatively affect functions of the body such as insulin regulation and the immune system.
So what will you take away from this information?
- Connect with others – they may live longer.
- Stand beside your friend – when they are in a stressful situation.
- How about…Show your support for those you love – you will benefit their health.
- Or…research shows that “life-enhancing effects of social support extend to giver as well as to receiver”.
Friendships and connections with others have real benefits for both our well-being and physical health. So…. take time to spend with friends, they are good for your health – but you already knew that.
