The Healthy Rotarian #34: "Health Benefits of Friendship"
Posted by Janet Sipple
on Apr 04, 2016
I recently spent a week with a friend whom I have had a forty year friendship with which reminded me of the health benefits of friendship. Rotary friendships also add another dimension to our lives.
1. Friends get you moving. Friends and family nudging and cajoling you can help to get you moving whether it's to be more physically active, drink more water, or eat more healthily.
2. Friends keep you relaxed. Friends provide us with a source for relaxation together. The adult version of childhood friendship play is having fun together as adults which creates opportunity for laughing and relaxing.
3. Friends help you live longer. Friendships reduce isolation and enhance a sense of belonging and self-worth which supports living longer and healthier.
4. Friends boost cancer survival rates. Cancer without friends is really tough to survive. Friends help us cope with traumas such as divorce, serious illness, job loss, and death of loved ones.
5. Friends lower heart disease risk. Friendships help reduce stress, enhance happiness, and thus lower blood pressure which is a key factor in heart disease.
Celebrate your friendships, add new friendships, renew old friendships, and be the friend you want to have in your life. Live well and speak a good word with your life.
Nurse Sipple
