6 Health Benefits of Being Social

‘Tis the season to socialize. Besides being fun, joining your friends and colleagues for holiday cheer may boost your brain power and help you to live a healthier life.

Judith Horstman, author of The Scientific American Healthy Aging Brain: The Neuroscience of Making the Most of Your Mature Mind, shares six reasons why keeping your social life humming may do the same for your brain.

According to a study conducted at Brigham-Young University, a strong social network is surprisingly more crucial to physical health than exercise or beating obesity. And friendships, whether those friends are near or far, increase our chances for a long, healthy life more so than children or other relatives.

Spending time with friends lowers your blood pressure and reduces inflammation in your body, which in turn decreases the probability of stroke or other brain damage. Taking a trip to visit long-time distant friends, a leisurely lunch with old friends or a night out with buddies might be just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes we view these activities as a distraction from other healthy habits, like going to the gym, or getting a good night’s sleep. But maintaining friendships is a good investment in your health.

Loneliness and isolation are bad for our brains as well as our bodies. University of Chicago psychologist Jon Cacioppo, who studies social isolation as it affects the brain and our other biology, finds it disconcertingly associated with illness—both mental and physical. When you make an extra effort to include a newly-widowed or divorced friend into your holiday gatherings, you’re helping your own health as well as that of your guest.

Having relationships with people to whom we are important has a positive effect on physical and mental health. It lowers stress and the tendency to depression. And, so long as our friends have healthy habits, it also decreases the tendency to unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking. When we know we matter, it’s somehow easier to make the right choices for our own well-being

Any social activity that engages your brain and keeps it active with stave off memory loss. But interacting with friends who are younger than you are may be especially therapeutic. Dr. Sharon Arkin, a psychiatrist at the University of Arizona, runs a clinical program in which Alzheimer’s patients engage in exercise sessions with college students. Her program helps to stabilize cognitive decline and improve patients’ moods. So don’t just invite your teenage grandchildren over, see if they want to bring a friend or two!

If you ever had your mother stroke your fevered brow, or kiss a skinned knee, and somehow felt better, you’re not alone and it wasn’t your imagination. New research shows that something as simple as holding hands with someone you care about lowers pain perception. Feeling connected to others is essential for our well-being. In fact, more than one hundred years of research shows that having a healthy social life is vital to staying mentally and physically healthy. So go join the party! (But maybe take it easy on the egg nog.)

Watch for more articles in our series from The Scientific American Healthy Aging Brain. By the end, you'll have all the tools you need to keep your brain healthy and working at top efficiency!