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Though people are usually concentrated on losing weight, quitting smoking, eating healthily, or exercising for a healthy lifespan, a new study now shows that having wholesome relationships with friends, spouses, or children are just as important. A shortage of social relationships was synonymous to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. A team from Brigham Young University analyzed 148 studies of over 308,000 people and how friendships affected their health.
Lack of social interaction was comparable to being an alcoholic, was more deleterious than not having any physical activity, and had double the damage of obesity. Premature death was found to be largely impacted by social interactions compared to vaccines for pneumonia, drugs for high blood pressure, and subjection to pollution in the air. Though all these factors are significant, we have to make sure to remember social correspondences also.
It is distressing to see that Americans are becoming more secluded and failing to retain their encouragement, care, comradeship, and love. The number of Americans who have reported having no relationships have increased three time over the last 20 years. The trend is for Americans to have decreased intergenerational living, delayed marriage, higher social mobility, dual-career families, greater single-residence households, and increased age-related disabilities.
Source: American Academy of Ophthalmology, news release, July 26, 2010
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