Friendship and Social Networks May be as Important as Diet and Exercise to Our Health

Friendship may be as important to your health as diet and exercise. Researchers have found that the more social ties people have at an early age, the better their health is at the beginnings and ends of their lives.

The researchers found that the sheer size of a person's social network was important for health in early and late adulthood. In adolescence, social isolation increased risk of inflammation by the same amount as physical inactivity, while social integration protected against abdominal obesity. In old age, social isolation was actually more harmful to health than diabetes on developing and controlling hypertension.

"Based on these findings, it should be as important to encourage adolescents and young adults to build broad social relationships and social skills for interacting with others as it is to eat healthy and be physically active," said Kathleen Mullan Harris, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The researchers also found that in middle adulthood, it wasn't the number of social connections that mattered. Instead, what mattered was what those connections provided in terms of social support or strain.

"the relationship between health and the degree to which people are integrated in large social networks is strongest at the beginning and at the end of life, and not so important in middle adulthood, when the quality, not the quantity, of social relationships matters," said Harris.

The findings reveal the importance of making and maintaining friendships. It shows how it has a direct impact on a person's health.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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