My Health
What are the health benefits of friendship? www.medicalnewstoday.comWritten by Katharine Lang on July 23, 2022 — Fact checked by Hilary Guite, FFPH, MRCGP
For most people, friendships form an important part of life. Sharing experiences is part of being human. And many studies have shown that loneliness has a negative effect on our well-being. Friendship has a positive impact on mental health, but can it also have physical benefits? Medical News Today looks at the evidence and speaks to experts to find out why friendships are good for our health and wellness. We do not have to be social all the time — sometimes we need to enjoy our own space — but all people need social interactions.
Once we decide that we value someone, more often than not we will work at maintaining that friendship. Speaking with Medical News Today, Dr. Scott Kaiser, a geriatrician and director of Geriatric Cognitive Health for the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, had this to say about friendship’s role in the evolution of humanity:
“Research suggests that evolution has continually selected for increasing social connection with social interaction and networks playing a major role in the That is why people make friends and work at maintaining those friendships. survival of people. According to this framework, our ancestors formed social And quality friendships will benefit all those involved. connections — working together, sharing food, and otherwise helping each other—to feel safe and protected.”
The evolutionary basis of friendship
We need friends
Human beings are a social species. From the earliest times, individuals have needed to cooperateTrusted Source in order to survive, and we still do. We are “Humans are hardwired to connect and social connections are an essential part not alone in this — most animalsTrusted Source have social interactions and of good health and well-being — we need them to survive and thrive, just like rely on cooperation. we need food, water and oxygen,” said Dr. Kaiser. Although animal friendships have been derided as anthropomorphism, research As children, most of us find that it is easy to make friends, but adults can find it has now shown that some animals do form long-term, stable relationships just more challenging. The good news is that the benefits of childhood friendships like human friendships. stay with us well into adulthood. Of course, not all animals have such friendships — as far as we know, these are In one study, boys were followed up at the age of 32. Those who reported having restricted to those that live in stable social groupsTrusted Source, such as higher had lots of friends in childhood had lower blood pressure and were more likely primates, elephants and cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins. to be a healthy weight than those who were less sociable. The basis of friendship is to value one another — each individual offers some- And it is not just close friendships that are good for us. People of all ages benefit thing that is valuable to another individual. from any type of social interaction. A 2017 studyTrusted Source into “SuperAgers” — people in their 80s who have the memory skills of those several decades As humans, we value others for all sorts of reasons. They might like the same younger — found that they had far greater levels of positive social relationships things we do, they might have similar political views, or perhaps lend help with than those with cognitive abilities expected for their age. work or chores.
TT 162 | July 26th - August 1st | 2022
