Friends Can Make You Healthier

Here is a link to a fascinating article on how friendships can help you age successfully and stay healthier. The more friends you have, the better off you are.

Interestingly, friends can influence you in a positive way -- quitting smoking, losing weight -- or negatively -- not studying when a student, gaining weight to the obese stage.

The article was in the New York Times and is based on the long-running Framingham Heart Study in Framingham, Massachusetts. People who stuck around Framingham and basically aged in place have done very, very well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/magazine/13contagion-t.html

The Power of Friends

I think we've all sensed it, but the New York Times ran an article saying it was so. Friends matter. People with friends have better health and live longer. I think that's why seniors move to assisted living or to retirement communities seeking a new community of friendship and support. But it's also why seniors want to age in place and stay in the community they love near their friends. Any aging in place group needs to do things to foster healthy friendships.

The article was in the "Well" column. Here is a synopsis and link:

What Are Friends For? A Longer Life

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Published: April 21, 2009

Many people overlook a powerful weapon in the quest for better health: their friends.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21well.html