Friendship Linked to Longer Life

Written by Kathryn Savage

	Two Costa Rican elders we met on our BlueZones expedition to the Nicoya peninsula.

Friendship is a wonderful part of life at any age, and having friends by your side, especially in old age, may help you live longer!

Ok, a nursing home or retirement community is not the golden age answer to the college dorm experience. There are no keggers and hot hookups. I mean, retirement is not a time we generally associate with loads of fun, with social bonding.

But there is something about the nature of community living that we can all get behind. Studies suggest that community building and bonding with friends, especially in old age, may lead to a longer life.

An Australian research team studied the social network patterns of 1,500 people over the age of 70. The research suggests that friendship - more than family bonds - directly correlated with an increased survival rate of about 22 percent among participants. People with friends lived longer than participants who only had contact with family, or who had very little contact with anyone at all.

Lynne Giles, lead researcher, suggests that the bonds of friendship, bonds we choose to invest in and nurture, may have more health benefits than family bonds.

Giles writes in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that “Discretionary relationships, with friends and confidants, as compared with relationships where there is less choice concerning interactions, with children and other relatives, have important positive effects on survival."

Talking to friends, bonding, listening, supporting each other, hearing about each other’s daily patterns, histories, stories, these are the uniting ties that make friendship so great. In old age, these bonds seem to be especially necessary.

Studies like the one led by Lynne Giles demonstrate the importance of bonding and friendship.

How do you build community and nurture your friendships?

Nurturing relationships takes effort, how can you make more time for friends?

1. Call a good friend who you haven’t talked to in a while.
2. Schedule a movie night or a Sunday brunch with a group of friends you haven’t seen in a while. Going out and doing something social is a great way to stay connected.
3. Get a group together to meet regularly and go for an evening walk or a weekend jog. Combining social activities and exercise is a great way to stay connected and stay in shape!

For the full BBC Article reporting on Lynne Giles research, follow this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4094632.stm

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