7 Benefits Of Friendship, According To Science
Friends are one of the best supports you can have in life. Everyone who has been lucky enough to have them knows about this. Being able to count on someone who loves one and that person can count on oneself can alleviate some of life’s problems. It also enlivens life itself. But that’s not all. Science has shown that there are other benefits to friendship.
Good friends do not have to be perfect, and they do not always have to be ready to help. It is enough that they accept you, are interested in what is happening in your life and that they are willing to listen to you. Friendship is both a simple and a deep gift.
Various studies have shown that there are benefits to friendship such as your friends improving your overall health, both physically and mentally. So you should learn to understand these benefits of friendship better, which we will help you with by telling you about these 7 benefits of friendship.
Friends can help you reduce your stress levels
Stress has many different causes. One of the most common, however, is the struggle to respond to life’s daily chores and tensions. Stress manifests itself where there are tensions between reality, just as it is, and the resources we have available to adapt to it.
Friends can help us reduce tensions. The fact that we have room for selfless communication reduces our stress. The sense of support that friends give us reduces our anxiety and that is why they help us control our stress levels and thus many of its negative consequences.
Friends contribute to better overall health
According to a study published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , people with good friends have better general health. This is not so surprising if we take into account that friendship improves one’s quality of life.
When you have someone who really cares about you, you will also take better care of yourself. If, on the other hand, you are alone, the effect will be the opposite. If you feel that you do not mean anything to anyone, it will be more difficult for you to take care of yourself, which will have an impact on your health.
People with friends feel less pain
The journal Psychosomatic Medicine presented a study that had been done on the relationship between pain and care. It proved that individuals who had people who cared for them experienced pain in a less intense way.
The opposite was also true. People who were more isolated tended to experience more intense pain. You should remember that all physical pain brings with it emotional suffering. The people who had friends, however, found it easier to endure this.
Other benefits of friendship include a stronger heart
A study conducted at Duke University, USA, showed that people with strong friendships had better cardiovascular health. This investigation compared friendship with physical exercise. Both factors had positive effects on the heart.
In this study, they were based on a group of a thousand people. All of these individuals had cardiovascular disease. Within 5 years, half of the people who had no friends had died, and 85% of the people with friends showed an improved condition.
They help prolong life
In 2010, a group of researchers from the United Kingdom compiled 148 studies on the relationship between friendship and mortality. They wanted to find out how consistent the different studies were regarding this. In total, their analysis included 300,000 people.
The results were astounding. During all the studies that had been performed, there was a clear link between loneliness and death. It was obvious that people with friends lived longer lives. The friendship had clear effects.
Friends help counteract obesity
It may be hard to believe, but science has not yet managed to explain everything about obesity. We already know that genetic, metabolic and psychological factors are involved, but the definitive cause has not yet been discovered in some cases. In fact, some theories confirm that weight gain is a form of self-defense. It increases when an individual feels vulnerable.
An investigation published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine seeks to clarify this. It indicates that friendship is a factor of emotional compensation. In fact, its effect is as strong as that of food. Individuals with friends do not tend to overeat.
They help us improve our mental acuity
Human interaction is a factor that stimulates the brain. If you have a long conversation or think of a reality that is different from your own, you stimulate the activity of the brain. On the other hand, isolated people suffer from a breakdown of their cognitive abilities.
When it comes to people with some form of mental illness, this aspect becomes even more critical. In fact, one of the reasons for this is precisely insulation. One of the factors that contributes most to recovery in this case is precisely friendship.
Having friends is like a treasure, do not hesitate. Instead of “ making new friends” , the task should be to teach us to be good friends to others. The rest comes by itself. The benefits you will get are endless, as you have just read. But in addition to this, your friends offer you an extra dose against bitterness.
