A “healthy drug”.The absence of friends is as bad as alcoholism or tobacco addiction. A study by Julianne Hold-Lunstad, from Brigham Young University (USA), and published in PLoS Medicine estimated that the lack of social relationships is equivalent to smoking more than 15 cigarettes a day. After tracking 300,000 people for seven years, Hold-Lunstad and his colleagues showed that not having friends is more harmful to health than being sedentary or even addicted to alcohol.
They increase longevity.After tracking 1,500 people for a decade, Australian scientists have concluded thatin individuals with a wide circle of friends the risk of dying is reduced by 22%. “Being connected with others is essential to living longer,” the researchers concluded in the journal.Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. If we are victims of cancer, the effect is even more evident. In 2006, a University of California (USA) study of 3,000 women with breast cancer revealed that those with no close friends were four times more likely to die from the tumor than those with ten or more friends.
All heart.A recent study by Duke University (USA) with a thousand single patients affected by cardiac pathologies revealed that, after five years, only 50% of the patients who did not have a trusted friend survived, compared to the85% of survivors among those patients who had at least one strong friendship relationship.
Childhood friends.The role that friends play in childhood is crucial. On the one hand, it avoids obesity because, according to a study published inAnnals of Behavioral Medicine, “Socialization acts as a substitute for food”and avoid the abuse of foods that promote overweight. Furthermore, Russ Jago from Bristol University (UK) has shown that children’s physical activity increases considerably when they play with their best friends. On the other hand, depression in childhood is directly related to the absence of friends, as William Bukowski has verified in an investigation published in the journalDevelopment and Psychopathology.
They change your brain.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, John Cacioppo and his colleagues at the University of Chicago (USA) have shown that having friends modifies the functioning of the brain, specifically theventral striatum region, associated with rewards. According to the authors of the study, the neurons in this region are activated in greater numbers and with more intensity if we are well accompanied than if we lead a solitary life. A fact to take into account given that the ventral striatum is acritical area for learning.
Painkiller comrades.It is best to give yourself an injection or treat a wound in the presence of a friend. According to a study published a few years ago in the journalPsychosomatic Medicine, the perception of pain is reduced when a person whom we consider to be close is physically present.
