Apparently besides the fun, the connection, the hobbies, the social network, friends are also good for a longer life.
Tara Parker-Pope wrote in the NY Times on April 21, 2009 an article entitled: “What are friends for? A longer life” which begins as follows:
In the quest for better health, many people turn to doctors, self-help books or herbal supplements. But they overlook a powerful weapon that could help them fight illness and depression, speed recovery, slow aging and prolong life: their friends.
Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends….And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age.”
What I particularly like, in addition to the news themselves, is that the facts are supported by two researches of sufficient statistics data. They were almost 1,500 participants in the effect of social network on 10-year survival (Australia) and over 15,000 particpitants on the effect of social integration on preserving memory function (USA).
I have to say that as a person who has studied NLP, I would have been interested in seeing if a specific meta-model about the person being externally or internally referenced did influence the results of any of these two studies in any way.
The definition of friends in any of these two studies is subject of interpretation but the idea of how useful our social networks are, is usually transparent in our current lives, nice to know it also impacts our future wellbeing.
I once said I believe I will live over 100 years, well if this is a consequence of my extended social network, I feel doubly blessed. First for having so many friends from all over the world and scattered over the world from whom I have learned, and keep on learning, so much, secondly because this is just reinforcing my chances to live that old.