Having more friends adds years to your life--study

People who have no social life are fifty percent more likely to die early than those who share a strong bond with friends, the study has found.

In fact, researchers claimed that the impact of friends on life longevity was comparable to the effects of quitting smoking.

Conversely, people with little peer support are exposed to mortality risk equal to alcoholism and even higher than either obesity or physical inactivity, the researchers stated.

Study details
In a bid to find the link between socializing and longevity, researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed 300,000 people from 148 different studies for a period of 7.5 years.

The study measured the health of people by monitoring the number of friends they had. Subjects were given a device to note their blood pressure level in their diaries.

As a result, people who were given more care ended up having lower blood pressure than those who complained about lack of support.

Burt Uchino, lead researcher of the study at the Universities of Utah and North Carolina, explained, “Friends and supportive people can make life easier on a basic, every day level. They can lend you money, offer lifts or provide babysitting.

“They can also encourage you to have better health practices, see a doctor, exercise more. They may also help you indirectly by making you feel you have something to live for.”

Teresa Ellen Seeman, a professor of medicine at the UCLA School of Public Health, said, ‘There are data that suggest all these systems are affected by social relationships.

"People who report more supportive and positive social relationships have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, better glucose metabolism and lower levels of various stress hormones," she added.

Study revelations
The study revealed that the link between death and loneliness applied to both men and women of all ages, regardless of their initial health condition.

Interestingly, socially-connected people live an average of 3.7 years more than loners, opined researchers.

However, Dr Antonio Gomez, assistant clinical professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said the doctors should study the research thoroughly as it may have its limitations.

"We can't make the broad, sweeping claim that social relationships cause increased survivability - at least, not yet," The LA Times quoted Gomez as saying.

“If patients do have good social relationships, they should maintain them. If they don’t, they should try to foster them,” he added.